We Are Family
by devotedtodreams
Summary: -first YGO fic- -boyXboy relationship- Thanks to his friends, Joey has escaped his violent father for now. Mokuba offers him to stay at their house. As Yugi says, there's only one catch in that plan: Seto. ...Or is it a catch, at all? COMPLETE!
1. Chapter 1

I know this idea has been done a bunch of times before (or at least something similar, I've spent many hours reading some really great fics), but I just got this idea and couldn't let go of it! So here it is...

BTW, English isn't exactly my mother tongue, so some things might sound weird (in other words, possible German sentence structure, but I don't always see how apparent it is)... apologies, apologies in advance for anything like that.

I've got one more week of vacation to go, so I'll try to get back to this as often as I can (presuming you want that, of course). Bear with me...

**Warnings:** boy/boy pairing! (it'll take a while, though) You don't like it? Not my problem.

I'm still abiding by the same rule I set up in one of my other fics: **My story, my world, my rules.**

**Disclaimer:** God forbid if I'd ever own Yu-Gi-Oh!... (or anything else, in fact)!

* * *

"Guys, I don't see what your point is!"

"Come off it, Joey, you know exactly what we're talking about!"

"Yeah, use your head and **think** for once!"

"Then what in the name of hell am I supposed to do now?!" a blond teenager bellowed.

Luckily, it was lunchtime, so nobody else heard him besides his closest friends. All four of them were gathered in the deserted classroom, standing around Joey's desk. He was scowling at them, but it was only an attempt to hide certain desperation.

He was a handsome young man, yet he wasn't overly popular at school. He never buttoned up his school uniform and did everything that pissed teachers off. His hair was always untidy, but clean anyhow. Although he often tried to act tough and unbreakable, his friends knew that he really was quite friendly and easygoing. Right now, however, his usually high spirits were tainted. He had bruises on his forehead and on his right cheek, and one of his eyes still showed traces of being swollen not too long ago. He looked wrecked, but hardly anybody dared to ask why that was so.

Tristan, his best friend, propped himself on the desk with his hands and said seriously: "Dude, you can't go back. He'll kill you if you do."

"Where else should I go to?" Joey hissed.

"We'll find someplace. I'd take you, but my parents said it just isn't possible," a girl called Tea said.

"I asked Grandpa, but because we live in a game store, it can't work either," a smaller boy named Yugi said in a small voice.

"I just wish you guys could have come up with a solution **before** you simply came and packed my stuff, dragging me out of my own apartment," Joey grumbled.

"We'll find you something. We're your friends," Ryou, a white-haired shy boy, reminded him.

"Why couldn't **you** take him, by the way?" Tristan asked.

Ryou fidgeted. "You know what my other side thinks about other people at our place. If Joey's father wouldn't kill him, my dark side would."

"Shit!" Tristan cussed.

Joey moaned and plunked his head on the table.

"Don't worry, Joey, it'll be alright," Yugi tried to comfort him.

_'Are you sure about that?'_ a voice inside his head asked.

_'Not really, but I won't tell him that,'_ Yugi replied in the same telepathic fashion.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

After school that day, Joey glumly walked alongside his friends, still not knowing where to go. He was starting to wonder what it would be like to sleep on the streets like a homeless man.

"Maybe Grandpa would let you stay for a night or two…" Yugi suggested feebly.

"Forget it; I'll just sleep on the streets," Joey sighed listlessly.

"Surely there's another solution?!" Tea cried, raising her hands as if praying to the Lord.

"Like what?" Ryou asked.

Suddenly, a dark limousine stopped next to them. The window rolled down, and a child's face which was surrounded by wild raven hair looked out.

"Hi guys!" the boy said cheerfully.

"Hi Mokuba," Yugi grinned.

"Where are you off to?" Tristan asked.

"Soccer practice. We're having a game in a month's time." Then the child noticed how Joey just stared at the sidewalk. "What's wrong with Joey?" he asked.

"Oh… um…" Tea fidgeted.

"Not much. I just can't go home anymore and will spend the night on the streets, whoopee fuck," Joey answered blandly with a bitter grin, not looking up.

"Can't go home? Why?" Mokuba Kaiba inquired, curious.

Yugi and Tea whispered an explanation: "See those bruises? His dad's been beating him badly again, so we came over, got his stuff and got him out of that place. It has been getting worse, and we doubt that he would've survived it much longer."

Mokuba's eyes got big as he looked back at Joey. "Where's he gonna stay now?" he asked in a hushed voice.

"That's the problem," Tristan interrupted, "We don't know. None of us can take him, we've tried everything. He can't even afford a hotel room or something; his dad never gave him money."

They were all good friends with Mokuba, but there was a special bond of friendship between the blond teen and the black-haired boy. Perhaps that was the reason why Mokuba said as if struck by inspiration: "Hey, he can come to **my** place!"

Joey perked up and frowned. The others twitched, and Ryou muttered:

"Ooh, that's risky…"

"Mokuba, do you know what you just said?" Tristan asked in disbelief.

"Yeah. So?" the kid asked, arching an eyebrow.

"That would be great if it'd work, but there's one big catch in that plan," Tea explained.

"Your brother," Yugi finished matter-of-factly.

"Hmm…" Mokuba thought for a moment, then burst out: "Don't worry, I'll talk to him! I'm sure he'll say yes! C'mon, Joey!"

"Kid, I don't wanna be mean, but I don't want to be called 'mutt' or 'dog' for God knows how long," Joey remarked dryly.

"Give me a chance, let me talk to him! Pleeeeease?" Mokuba begged, calling upon his notorious puppy-dog-look. It only took one moment for Joey to decide.

"Oh, okay. Let's give it a shot," he sighed in defeat.

"Yay! C'mon, get in!" Mokuba squealed, opening the door.

"Are you sure about this, Joey?" Tristan whispered.

"What other choice do I have?"

"If Kaiba treats you badly…" Yugi began.

"…call on me, and I'll talk to him," a voice that was like his, just deeper, said from right behind the boy. Yugi yelped – it was Yami, the Pharaoh who had been released when Yugi had solved the Millennium Puzzle.

"Geez! Don't creep up on me like that!" the teen squeaked.

"Easy, I wasn't going to hurt you or anything," Yami told him, "Remember my words, Joey. You know how Kaiba can become quite negotiating when I'm around," he told the blond.

"Yeah, thanks, Yami. See ya, guys." Then he got into the limousine, and as the window rolled up again, it drove off.

"I hope he'll be alright…" Tea remarked worriedly.

"If Kaiba does anything to him…!" Tristan growled.

"We'll surely receive word from him tomorrow, so let's just hope for the best. Let's have faith in Mokuba," Yugi tried to reason.

"He's right…" Ryou glanced at his watch. "Oh, heavens! I must get going, or he'll slaughter me...!"

"You ought to teach that bastard a lesson someday," Tristan advised him.

"See ya!" Ryou only yelled and ran off as if the devil was on his tail.

"Ryou, teach Bakura a lesson? Dream on!" Tea huffed.

"Yeah, that's true…" Tristan admitted with an embarrassment blush, scratching the back of his head.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Joey sat on a common wooden bench and watched the other boys of Mokuba's age play soccer. He wished he could also be so carefree, so innocent… although Mokuba sometimes was astoundingly mature for his age. The blond felt sick and full of dread when he thought about even **trying** to ask to stay at the Kaiba's mansion. Sure, Mokuba could exercise some power over his older brother, but would it be enough?

_'Do I even __**want**__ that?'_ Joey asked himself dazedly. His conscience answered quite promptly:

_--Yes, you do. You don't want to spend the night on the streets. You just don't like the perspective of being called 'mutt' forever.--_

_'Who __**would**?!'_ Joey grumbled back and sulked.

He continued to have that weird conversation with himself and almost missed the end of practice. Only when he saw Mokuba darting toward him did he snap out of his absent-minded state.

"Let's go, Joey!"

"You seem awfully happy to see me…" the blond commented as they got back into the limousine.

"Hey, I haven't seen you in ages!" Mokuba beamed.

"You're a jewel," Joey told the young teenager with something like brotherly fondness in his voice. Mokuba didn't miss it, of course.

When they arrived at the fancy mansion, Joey's unease became apparent.

"Don't worry, he's not home yet. He said he'd be later because of his work," Mokuba assured him as they went inside (to Joey's slight discomfort, two maids carried in the two boxes that contained his belongings).

"Is that necessary?" he muttered, "I mean, they can just as well leave it outside, there's no way I can stay here…"

"We'll see about that!"

"Say, if your brother's not here, do the maids make dinner for you?" Joey asked, noticing that they were in a nice kitchen.

Mokuba shook his head. "No, they just clean the house."

"But… what about dinner, then?"

A somewhat sad smile appeared on the child's face. "Well, as you know, my brother works a lot and isn't here often in the evening, so he always has the servants buy lots of frozen food I can warm up."

"**That** won't do! Sit back, little champ, and let me fix something for you!"

"You can cook?!"

"Sure! Dad surely couldn't, so it was up to me to prepare the chow! Now, what have we here?" he rambled, rummaging through the fridge. He found some chicken and some noodles in a little pantry. "Ha! This'll do!" He quickly found pots and pans, and Mokuba sat down on the counter and watched in awe how skillfully the blond started to make dinner. Like some professional cook, it seemed, he threw herbs into a creamy sauce and all the while watched over the boiling noodles.

"That's amazing!" Mokuba exclaimed.

"Nothing big. I can do more complicated things, but I figured this would do, right?"

"It's more than I would have bargained for," Mokuba told him.

"Here, try this." Joey handed him a ladle with a noodle draped over it. "Taste it and tell me if they're soft enough."

Mokuba obeyed. "Mmh, great!" he complimented.

Joey nodded and took them off the stove. A few minutes later, Mokuba was sitting at the kitchen table, staring at a plate which bore a chicken breast and a heap of noodles, all topped with a creamy sauce. It smelled genuinely delightful.

"Dig in," Joey invited him and pulled up another chair.

"What about you?" Mokuba asked, picking up his fork.

"I'm not hungry," Joey replied with a headshake, "just go on."

Mokuba only needed one bite to give his valuation: "You're the best cook in the world, Joey!"

"That's exaggerated, but thanks anyway!" the blond laughed and happily watched the younger Kaiba eat. He even forgot that he'd soon be facing a person with whom he barely got along.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Mokuba's older brother was true to his word and came home around nine that evening. It was dark outside, and it was raining a bit. Ignoring the umbrella he was offered, he swept right up the front steps in such a rapid pace that he barely got wet anyway. As he opened the door, he wondered what his little brother was doing. His surprise was great when he opened the door, but no one came running to the sound, no happy cry and no welcoming hug. Puzzled, the elder Kaiba set down his silver briefcase and proceeded to search for his sibling. Voices drifted out from somewhere and guided his steps:

"…you never told me he hit you."

That was Mokuba.

"That's something between me and him. No need to get you guys all upset about that," another voice said.

The young CEO of Kaiba Corp. stopped in his tracks. That voice… he recognized it, though he wished it weren't true. It couldn't be…!

"I hope you'll listen to the others; you shouldn't go back."

"How am I supposed to do that? I mean, I can't live on the streets… okay, I **could**, but that'd be the pits."

"How about if –"

"Good evening, Mokuba."

The boy looked up and exclaimed delightedly: "Hi Seto!"

A tall brunet stood in the doorway to the living room and was looking at them slightly reproachfully. He wore a billowing trench coat that made his appearance quite impressive. His cold blue eyes were fixed motionlessly upon them, and his mouth was a thin, unsmiling line. That expression faded for a very short moment when Mokuba hugged him tightly around the waist; his eyes softened a bit, and he fondly ruffled the raven hair. When he looked up again at the one who was still sitting on the sofa, his icy glare had returned.

"What are you doing here, mutt?" he asked crudely.

"Shut your trap, Kaiba!" Joey growled angrily.

Seto Kaiba sighed. "Mokuba, if you had to bring a pet home, why didn't you put it on a leash?"

"Take that back!" Joey yelled and jumped up. Seto merely smirked.

"Big brother, please listen to me!" Mokuba begged, tugging at the sleeve of the coat, "Joey's here for a special reason! Can he stay with us?" he asked straight-out.

Seto sighed theatrically. "He belongs in a dog kennel, not in this house."

Just before Joey would erupt, Mokuba hurried to explain: "Please! The situation is quite dire! He can't go back home, and he can't stay anywhere else!"

"What about a hotel? Oh wait, I forgot that dogs don't have money," Seto corrected himself sarcastically.

"Kaiba, you bastard…!" Joey hissed, balling his hands to fists.

"Please, please, Seto! You don't understand… his father's been hitting him!" Mokuba burst out. He had realized that that was a very personal and therefore very private issue of Joey's life, but the way things were going, perhaps it was the only way to reason with his brother, although the chances for success remained few.

Upon hearing that from his brother, Seto looked a bit more closely at Joey and discovered the fading bruises. He had seen even more faded ones when he had attended Domino High School, but he had always assumed that they were traces from street-fights.

"Can he stay?" Mokuba almost whispered. When his brother frowned, he activated his puppy-eyes face that was almost impossible to resist. "Please!" he added with a little whimper to strengthen the effect.

"…I'll think about it," Seto finally replied and turned to retire to his study.

"Hurry up a bit; I'd like to be able to look around for a new stay before the werewolves come out!" Joey snarled at his turned back.

Seto looked at him with one dangerously blazing eye. "You're slimming your own chances, mutt. Choose your words carefully." Then he left the room.

Joey spat disgustedly and flopped back down on the couch. Timidly, Mokuba sat beside him. Noticing the kid's discomfort, Joey tried to smile reassuringly.

"It's not your fault. Your brother's just a jerk, pardon my French."

"Do you guys get along so badly?" Mokuba asked sadly.

Joey shrugged. "I don't know what I did wrong. It has been that way ever since we met. Instant dislike, I guess."

"I hope you can stay," Mokuba told him earnestly and hugged his arm. Joey calmed down and smiled at the youngster.

"Thanks, kid," he murmured and hugged him back.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

At around 11 that night, Seto was disturbed from his work when his brother poked his head into the study.

"Seto, I wanted to ask about Joey. Can he stay, now?"

The brunet looked up and saw the silently pleading look on the child's face. As much as he hated to admit it, but he felt himself losing the battle to tell him no – he sensed that it would make his sibling very happy, and Mokuba's happiness was the only thing that ranked higher than dueling or work.

"Oh, alright. But it's only temporary – one wrong move and he'll land on the doorstep," he added coldly.

"Thanks, big brother! You're the best!" Mokuba cheered and beamed at him. Then he left, taking care to close the door again.

Seto shook his head, almost disgusted by himself, then continued typing as if nothing had happened.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

"This'll be your room," Mokuba said and opened a door.

"Wow!" Joey whistled.

The room was not smaller than either one of the Kaiba brothers – probably a guests' bedroom, Joey thought. It had a queen-sized bed in it with curtains to draw and everything. Like most rooms, it was neatly furnished, with a closet, a bedside table and a few cabinets. There was also a large double-window with a wide sill to sit on.

"You like it?" Mokuba asked.

"Yeah, sure! This is like a five-star hotel for me," Joey marveled.

"Great! I'll show you around the house tomorrow, okay?"

"Um, yeah… but remember that I have school tomorrow," Joey excused himself.

Mokuba smiled. "I know. When you're home, I meant."

"Home…" Joey murmured, looking around his new room.

"Goodnight, Joey. See you tomorrow!"

"You too, Mokuba. And thanks a lot."

"No problem."

When he was alone, Joey first walked around, looking closely at everything. The room was nicer than he had ever pictured it could be, though he was sure that it would be different if Seto had been the one to choose it and not his brother. Joey made a mental note that he owed the kid big time and would make up for it whenever he could. When he finally flopped down on the bed, the digital clock on the bedside table showed quarter past twelve. Groaning as he dreaded the early wake-up, Joey fiddled with the device and managed to program the time he wished to be woken up. Tiredness overcame him, and he barely managed to change into his navy-blue, battered pajamas before he nestled himself into the soft blankets and the fluffy pillow and fell asleep within minutes.

* * *

Feel free to review :)

Whether I continue or not, depends on you!


	2. Chapter 2

Many thanks for the reviews! _-is happy-_ Hope you'll do it again... :)

Sorry that this chapter's kinda short, but the others are longer, I promise! Sometimes it just can't be helped... Tell ya what, though: I'll post chapter three right away as a (at least, I hope so) little treat! ;)

**Disclaimer** (apply to all chapters): (see chapter 1)

* * *

The next morning, a quite flustered Joey was driven to school in a limousine Mokuba had organized for him. The youngster was a most gracious host, though Joey was a bit uncomfortable with so much service; he was more used to doing things himself. He blushed scarlet when people gaped at him as he got out of the limousine at school. His friends were among those people.

"Whoa, dude! What's up with **that**?" Tristan asked, pointing at the car.

"Nothing," Joey muttered.

"Where did you stay?" Ryou asked.

"Um… guys…" Yugi had taken a closer look at the car and discovered the initials printed in silver letters on the tail fin: KC. "…That's a car from Kaiba Corp."

"Baka!" Tristan grumbled and playfully cuffed Ryou, "Remember that Mokuba invited him yesterday?"

"Oh yeah, sorry. Ouch!" the white-haired boy whimpered, rubbing his shoulder, "I had a rough night, so take it easy on me."

"Ooh, I understand," Tristan sniggered, thus earning himself a scolding look from Tea.

"So, how was it at Kaiba's?" Yugi asked as they entered the building.

"Hmpf! Moneybags was as friendly as always," Joey growled, "Lucky that Mokuba was there, otherwise I would've spent the night in a garbage can."

"You should try and get along with him."

"He'd better stop calling me names first!" Joey argued.

Yami suddenly appeared, scaring Yugi again.

"Yikes! Yami, you did it **again**!" he sighed.

"Sorry, Yugi... Listen, Joey, if you will stay with the Kaiba family, you should strive to get along better with them… or just with Seto. According to you, Mokuba is an easy deal."

"He's a pearl."

Yugi laughed and Yami smiled. Joey grinned.

"Class, pay attention!" the teacher called as they filed in and took their seats. Math was first, and Joey's shoulders slumped.

"Aw, man… I'd rather argue with Rich Boy than do this…!" he whimpered.

"Joey Wheeler, pay attention!" the teacher scolded sharply.

"Yes, sir," the blond hurried to say as the class snickered. It would be a perfectly normal day.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

After school, Joey decided to leave quickly so he wouldn't be picked up by some fancy-ass car again that would only bring him too much attention. So he hastily bid goodbye to his friends and walked off in the direction of Kaiba's mansion. On his way there, he passed Mokuba's school – and was fortunate to do so.

As soon as he came closer, he saw the raven-haired boy exit the building. Suddenly, half a dozen bigger boys that looked like they could be real bullies surrounded him. Joey quickened his pace. The littler kids stared as he entered the school grounds, but he only saw and heard the scene in front of him:

"C'mon, squirt, your brother's such a filthy-bad-ass rich guy, you gotta have a big allowance!"

"I don't! I don't have any money with me!" Mokuba protested.

"Nice try, pipsqueak. Boys, let's shake him up a little!"

They laughed stupidly and started pushing Mokuba around. He tried to defend himself, but he was helplessly outnumbered and definitely overpowered. One of the boys gave him a particularly rough shove and caused him to fall. During the fall, another snatched away his brown leather schoolbag.

"Maybe the loot's in here!"

"Pour it all out, Mitch!"

"Hold it right there!" a more mature voice thundered.

The bullies whirled around and found themselves face-to-face with a blond teen whose black tattered schoolbag was draped casually over his shoulder. Two amber eyes glared at them, and the usually cheerful face was contorted into a frown.

"Who the fuck are you?" the lead bully asked.

"A friend of his. Give the bag back to him right **now**…"

"Or else what? You'll beat us up?" another boy asked.

"Yeah, exactly that," Joey answered calmly.

"You wish, freak! Get him!" the leader yelled, and all the other bullies pounced on Joey. The leader, however, roughly grabbed Mokuba, whose tear-filled eyes glared daggers at him.

But Joey was more than just a match for the younger teens. Mokuba and the leader watched in awe as he darted around them and used punches and kicks to send them to the floor. In the end, he even gave one of them a bloody nose, and that caused his opponents to give up and run away, screaming like little kids.

"Let Mokuba go!" Joey growled at the leader.

Said boy blanched. "You'll pay for this!" he snarled, but didn't manage to sound too intimidating, then he let go of Seto's brother and took off after his comrades. Joey picked up the schoolbag they had dropped and handed it to Mokuba.

"Thanks, Joey," he muttered.

"Those cowards! Six against one! Does this happen a lot?"

"Every now and then," Mokuba admitted, "They think that because Seto's the owner of Kaiba Corp., I always walk around with bags stuffed with money… Usually, I get out a bit earlier, but today I was delayed, so they caught me…"

"Did they hurt you?"

Mokuba smiled. "No. You were there at the right time. Thanks a lot."

"Hey, that's just repayment. You enabled me to stay for the night, so it's the least I can do."

"Wait till Seto hears about this!"

"I'd rather he wouldn't," Joey muttered.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

As Mokuba had promised, he showed Joey the house when they got back to it. It was all too apparent that Joey was greatly impressed, and he didn't hesitate to show it now that Seto wasn't around. He even got to see a room he wouldn't have believed to see:

"This is Seto's study," Mokuba explained, opening another door.

Joey gawked and peered inside. It was a dark, rather gloomy room, containing a few bookshelves, a double-window with drawn curtains and a large desk with a laptop on it in the middle of the room.

"This is off-limits, even for me," Mokuba added.

"Figures. How can he stand it in here? There's no light or anything!"

"I know what you mean, but Seto says he works best under these conditions, so we shouldn't argue with him about that."

"Mmh-hmm. And what's in here?" he asked, pointing to another door, which Mokuba went to open.

"This is the library. Those are Seto's books, mine are over there, and in that cabinet… well, those are photo albums," the youngster said, suddenly acquiring an oddly quiet voice.

"You okay?" Joey asked worriedly.

"Yeah. Sure. Let's go on," Mokuba said hastily.

Joey complied, but decided to go back to that library sometime, even though it felt odd to him that he'd ever feel a desire to return to a room crammed full of books.

Lots of steps later, he had seen almost everything of the house, but felt as if he had forgotten most of it already. As they headed for the living room, he noticed a door he was almost sure they hadn't visited before.

"What's that, Mokuba?"

"Hmm? Oh," the boy said, staring at it, "that's… um… a room without much purpose, to be honest. I don't know why Seto keeps up with it; he never uses it anyway. It's basically an empty room except for a bombastic sound system."

"You mean you could make it a party room if you wanted to?"

"Yeah, but we never party."

"No surprise there," Joey sighed.

As they entered the living room, they heard a clicking noise and a deep-voiced call:

"Mokuba?"

"Seto! Hello!" Mokuba cried in response and rushed to greet his brother. A short moment of friendly greeting took place, then Seto's gaze become hard once more as he spotted Joey.

"So, the mutt's still here?" he concluded.

"C'mon, Seto, he can stay longer than just one night, can't he?" Mokuba begged.

"Listen, Mokuba, there are people who work for a living, people who can't work at all and other people who could do so, but don't. Those people are called parasites, and mutts belong in that category, if you ask me."

"For your information, you prick: I can take care of myself perfectly well! And I am **not** a parasite!" Joey snorted.

"He saved me from the bullies!" Mokuba interrupted.

"What?!" Seto exclaimed, inhaling sharply, and Joey saw his cerulean eyes wide in a rare moment of shock. Then he stared at the blond, though it looked as if he were trying to spear him by a mere look. "Is that true, mutt?"

"Yeah, Rich Boy, thanks for asking. They were pushing him around, demanding money, and I kinda taught them a lesson."

"Why would they want money from you?" Seto asked his brother.

"Because you're the famous CEO of the flourishing company Kaiba Corp.," Mokuba answered, sounding weirdly like a computer.

"You weren't hurt?"

For the first time, Joey heard worry in the brunet's voice.

"No. Joey came just in time."

Seto appeared to be speechless for a moment, but then he said: "I'm glad that nothing happened to you." Then he turned to get himself whatever he ate.

"He didn't say thank you…" Mokuba muttered disappointedly.

Joey shrugged and clapped the boy's shoulder. "Don't sweat it. I never expected him to do that. It'd be as if he'd show me a bit of respect. I can live without it… I guess." Then he shuffled off.

Mokuba stayed behind, but still felt rueful. He wished very much for his older brother and Joey to get along, but he also knew from Joey's friends that they were like a cat and a dog and therefore almost **destined** to be enemies.

_'I've just gotta show him that Joey isn't a piece of filth in his life!'_ he decided at that moment.


	3. Chapter 3

Three days later, it was Saturday, and for the first time since he had "moved in" to the Kaibas' house, Joey was able to sleep in a bit like he loved to do. He woke up past 10 am.

"Ah… darn, that felt good! Now for some breakfast…" he yawned and dragged himself downstairs, waking up a bit more with every step he took. By the time he was in the kitchen, he was almost fully awake.

Mokuba was already there, bent over a bowl of cereal and reading a comic book. Seto wasn't there.

"Oh, hi Joey!" the raven-haired boy greeted him cheerfully.

"Hi kiddo. Slept well?"

"Yeah, sure. You?"

"Perfect. Sleeping in that bed is like floating on a cloud," Joey sighed.

"I thought you'd like it," Mokuba grinned knowingly, "Oh, by the way, help yourself to anything…"

"Yay! Thanks!" Joey showed him thumbs-up, then began raiding the pantry. Not too much later, he joined the young teen, a horrendous amount of plates bearing toast, pancakes, fruit and yoghurt around him. Mokuba gaped. To top it all, Joey was aiming to drown down all of that with a large glass of chocolate milk.

"Wow, and Seto thinks that **I** eat much…" the boy said faintly.

Joey shrugged and started wolfing down his breakfast. "I come around a lot, so it doesn't matter," he replied with a full mouth.

Mokuba giggled; whenever someone was around, he was reminded to have proper table manners, but Joey wasn't even **abiding** by any of them. He had a feeling that he could do just about anything around the blond.

"Wanna watch the news or something?" Mokuba asked after a short while.

"Hmm?" Joey asked, his mouth still full, "Nah, that's boring. Any cartoons on?"

"You like cartoons?!"

"Best damn programs there are, if you ask me." (1)

Grinning like the king of the world, Mokuba fetched the remote control for a TV beside the fridge, and they tuned in to a series of favored kids' morning cartoons. Joey was quite like a child at some times, so he gladly burst into laughter along with the younger Kaiba when the cartoon characters tricked others with dynamite and other absurd actions.

They had just started watching Looney Tunes when a stern voice said:

"I thought I had told you 'no cartoons at breakfast', Mokuba."

"Morning, Seto! I offered Joey to watch the news, but he wanted to watch cartoons, so I figured –"

"Turn that off this instant."

The brunet swept into the kitchen. Joey at first barely recognized him: instead of his usual fancy trench coat or some other expensive clothes, Seto wore a sky-blue airy shirt with casual black pants. They even looked as if the common folks could afford them.

"Give him a break, Moneybags! Let him be a kid as long as there's time!" Joey complained, swallowing a mouthful of toast with jam.

"And even mutts should know not to talk with their mouths full of food," Seto retorted coolly.

"Let it be," Joey advised Mokuba when the latter attempted to turn off the TV.

"Listen here, flea bag! This is **my** house, and you'll live by **my** rules, or you'll walk straight out that door faster than you say 'Duel Monsters'!" Seto threatened, advancing on Joey.

"I'm not afraid of you, and I think you know that. Geez, no wonder you're so uptight! Now pipe down, this is a good part!" he said, even waving his hand dismissively at the CEO while his gaze was fixated on the screen where Daffy Duck was chasing Bugs Bunny.

Seto was stunned. Never before had he been dismissed so crudely, whether by enemies or even friends. He just stared at Joey as if the blond had sprouted a new eye on his forehead. Mokuba looked nervously to his brother, then to their guest and back again, but when Seto still didn't move, he decided to let off it and continued to watch TV with one of his best-friends-to-be.

"Despicable!" Seto finally hissed to nobody in particular and made himself some coffee, no food included. As he waited for the machine to pour out the liquid he had come to enjoy so much, he cast a secret glance over his shoulder. The other two were giggling madly. Seto watched as Joey said something to Mokuba, at whose response his grin became as broad as Christmas. Seto didn't hear what he said, and he didn't care. And as much as he was furious about how he had just been treated, he found that there was something oddly comforting about the scene: to see his little brother so happy, happier than he was with his other same-aged friends… When the coffee was ready, Seto took it and silently left the kitchen to return to his study. His departure went unnoticed.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

That same day, in the middle of the afternoon, Seto finally re-emerged from his study. He had promised Mokuba to play with him for a while, the games being the choice of the younger sibling. Sometimes that was risky, but though many believed it wouldn't be possible, Seto cared very much for him and would do almost anything to see him happy. He went to the kitchen and the living room, but found no one.

"Where's Mokuba?" he asked a maid who was cleaning the carpet.

"Master Mokuba is in his room, sir," she answered meekly.

Seto said nothing as he went upstairs. Even a few doors away, he heard his brother's melodious laughter – mixed with that of Joey Wheeler. Seto frowned as he drew closer and could make out their cries:

"Whoa, you're coming on hard!"

"Well, this isn't a game for wimps!"

"Ooh, I'll show you…!"

"Ha-ha, gotcha! I'm the champ, you know!"

"Sure, sport, but I don't give up that easily!"

"If I can just…"

"Oh, shit!"

Seto couldn't take it anymore and opened the door as quietly as he could. Mokuba and Joey were sitting on the couch, looking like they were performing some weird dance as they leaned towards each other, then away again. Taking a closer look, Seto noticed that they were playing on one of Mokuba's old gaming consoles, a retro-like thing called a Nintendo 64. (2) They were playing some racing game that looked profoundly childish to him…

_"Winner!"_ the screen proclaimed, and Mokuba punched the air.

"Yay! I did it!"

"Well-played, really," Joey chuckled and ruffled the kid's hair.

"You're one of my toughest challenges aside from Seto."

"He plays this stuff?"

Seto watched and listened interestedly, wondering what his brother would say. It pained him a bit to see the young one's face falter as he answered:

"Actually, no… He always said it was too kiddy. I mean, he likes serious stuff like solitaire and chess, but games like this really get me going, not the games he likes."

"Spoilsport," Joey commented.

"Says who?" Seto demanded loudly.

Mokuba started, and Joey jumped at least a foot.

"Seto! How long have you been there?" Mokuba gasped.

"Long enough. What are you doing?"

"Playing with Joey…" Mokuba wisely kept to himself that the question was ridiculously obvious, though Joey couldn't quite disguise a sneer. (3)

"Shouldn't mutts be playing outside?" Seto smirked.

That was a mistake: Mokuba's face contorted into a rarely-seen frown, and in a pointedly rebellious voice he answered:

"No! Joey isn't a dog! He's my friend and can do whatever I do!" To emphasize his point, he turned his back on his older brother and gave Joey's shoulder a challenging nudge. "Another race?"

"Yeah, you're on," Joey replied, gladly turning away from the older Kaiba, who just stood there like a statue, hurt by that reaction of the only family member he had left.

"Mokuba… I'm sorry…" he muttered, not sure if he would be heard.

He was. "Apologize to Joey, if to anybody."

Seto was unable to stifle a groan; an apology to Joey! Good God, his worst nightmare…!

"Tell ya what, Moneybags," Joey said without turning his head even an inch as his fingers danced on the controller, "You don't need to apologize if you play a few races."

That was interesting. A challenge as an apology's replacement. Before he knew it, Seto said:

"Bring it on."

"Huh?!" Mokuba cried, his eyes leaving the screen as he gawked at his brother.

"You heard me. Scoot over," Seto said as he marched up to the couch.

"No way," Mokuba told him, staying put placidly, "You sit between us!"

"You want me to get fleas?"

Mokuba pouted, and before he could make it really devastating, Seto agreed reluctantly: "Okay, okay… I wanted to shower later anyway…"

Joey pretended not to hear the hidden insult as the brunet nimbly climbed over the couch lean and sat down between him and Mokuba. He could barely believe it; he was playing on an old Nintendo 64 like back in his childhood arcade trips, only this time with the oh-so-important-and-arrogant Seto Kaiba himself! He bet himself a million dollars that his friends would never believe it.

They chose their characters and a track, and then they raced. Although he had only played the game on a few extremely rare occasions, Seto found that he still had quite a good hang of it – his former game mentor must have been right when he had told him that he was a gifted child when it came to games. Mokuba, of course, was gaming-obsessed and therefore very skilled and almost impossible to beat. What surprised Seto the most was how much of a challenge Joey was. The blond was constantly interfering, no matter how many traps he set up. Because his brother was so absorbed with defending his position, Mokuba could easily gain a terrific lead. When they played the youngster's absolute favorite course, he even lay in wait for them to blast them both up as they came along, fighting for second place.

"What?! No fair! Hey! I was supposed to beat you!" Joey yelled at the end of that race. Whirling to face Mokuba, he said hastily: "Let's do that one again! I'm sure I can do it this time!"

"As you wish," Mokuba sniggered and selected the same course. Joey had only barely been defeated by Seto, so of course the blond sensed the perfect opportunity to see if it could be done again.

"After this, I'm done," Seto informed them.

"Aw…" Mokuba complained, but knew that it was a miracle in itself that his brother had played at all, "Alright, big brother."

"You're going down, Kaiba!" Joey vowed and started taxing the controller as the race started.

"You wish!" Seto snorted and focused entirely on his racing style.

Their battle was exceptionally hard, and this time Mokuba finished the race in peace. Once his racer had crossed the finish line one lap in advance of the others, he leaned back and watched the rest of the race. Being quite smart and witty, he also decided to watch how they interacted in the hopes of seeing some change now that Joey had lived with them for almost a week now.

"Wheeler… get off my tail…" Seto growled.

"No way, Jose! I almost beat you last time, you think I'd let you get away this time?" Joey contradicted smartly, then leaned forward in a typical gaming anticipation. To Mokuba's genuine surprise, Seto did the same, and for some reason, even though they were rivals they looked like one heart and one soul as they played in the exact same position.

"Just a little bit more…" Joey mumbled through gritted teeth and leaned over, as if it would make his racer turn more sharply. The twist was that he was leaning against Seto's shoulder. The brunet returned the gesture, thus bringing them almost cheek-to-cheek. Mokuba held up his hand to hide an unseen grin. The atmosphere bristled in the room as the final meters were driven, then –

"Aw man!" Joey groaned, leaning back in exhaustion.

Seto just sighed and bowed his head for a short moment. He had won again, but even more narrowly than last time.

"You're tough, Wheeler," he commented.

"So are you. That was a darn good match… I'll beat you next time for sure!"

"Next time?" Mokuba asked hopefully.

Seto paused at the look on his brother's face, then answered hesitatingly: "We'll see." Then he stood up and left to take a shower.

"That was incredible!" Joey marveled.

"Yeah. You know, I could almost swear that you and Seto are getting along a bit better…"

"Huh?" Joey asked.

"You know, you were leaning against each other like good friends do when they play together…" Mokuba hinted.

"Sorry to disappoint you, kid, but that was just a coincidence," Joey tried to reason, "Listen, I gotta go outside a bit…"

"Sure. Thanks for the races, Joey."

"No problem."

Even after the blond had left, Mokuba couldn't stop grinning. No matter what Joey or Seto said, he wouldn't let off his theory. Could such simple gestures be so deceiving…?

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

That evening, Joey received a phone call from his friends. From what he could tell, they were at the game store, and Yugi had put the phone on loudspeaker. More importantly, it sounded as if everyone was there – his usual friends, Yami and even Bakura.

_"Dude! Still hanging in there?"_ Tristan asked.

"Yeah…" Joey said, putting his own phone on loudspeaker and stretching out on his bed.

_"What about Kaiba? Is he still rude to you?"_ Tea asked.

"Ya know, that's an interesting question. You guys will never guess what happened today!"

_"Tell us, tell us!"_ Ryou chirped.

"He played some Nintendo 64 with me and Mokuba."

_"Eeeeeeeeh?!"_ the others exclaimed in unison.

Joey snickered.

Unknown to him, Seto was on the way to his study again and had to pass Joey's room on the way there. He walked past the door at the very moment that Joey told his friends about the gaming session earlier that day. Seto stopped in his tracks. Oh no… was Wheeler talking to his friends? Mokuba's brother shuddered at the imagination of what they might be thinking now that they knew that he had played childish racing games… To his own faint surprise, he stayed put and continued to listen in on the conversation; he even heard what the others were saying.

"I knew you guys wouldn't believe me," Joey said with a smirk.

_"Well, yeah, of course; this is __**Kaiba**__ we're talking about, after all!"_ That was Tristan…

_"Maybe we all misjudged him to some degree."_ That only could be Tea…

_"And if you're wrong, we could always shake him up a little…"_ an evil voice said. Unmistakably Bakura.

_"Not so hasty…"_ his mild-mannered twin muttered uneasily.

_"I'm glad that things seem to be going a bit better,"_ Yami said.

Seto twitched. Yami! His greatest rival and the only duelist who had managed to defeat him, and that more than once! The temptation was incredible to just rush in there, barge in and challenge Yami to a duel. But, having a respectable amount of self-control, Seto held himself back and continued to listen.

"I'm surprised too…" Joey replied thoughtfully, "You could almost think that Kaiba is human after all…"

_"Of course he is human, Joey,"_ Yami said sternly.

"Sorry, I just somehow had the impression that he's kinda like a robot… I mean, which normal person spends so much time on work? And you can't tell me that he's practically teeming with expression varieties on his face…"

_"We don't know what he's been through. There's a reason for everything,"_ Yami reminded him.

_"Enough of the girly talk already!"_ Bakura interrupted harshly.

_"If you don't like it, go away,"_ Tea scolded.

They got into a huge squabble about that, and Seto listened with mild exasperation. Was that a "normal people" phone conversation? He was sure that **he** would consider it a great waste of his time. Joey wrapped the situation up after a while:

"Listen, guys, I probably should hang up now – I don't want Moneybags breathing down my neck because I'm spending all his money."

_"Dream on, you couldn't even spend that much,"_ Tristan joked.

_"Maybe you'd even __**like**__ him breathing down your neck, literally…"_ Bakura sniggered.

"Jesus Christ, man!" Joey exclaimed.

Seto wished that he could **see** the blond's reaction…

_"Anyway, it was nice talking to you, Joey. See you!"_ Yugi said, and after a short exchange of goodbyes, Joey switched off the phone, muttering some obscene things about Bakura. Seto shuddered again and decidedly went on his way to his study, all the while secretly hoping that the others wouldn't start getting wrong ideas about him…

* * *

(1) I should be ashamed to admit it, but I agree. _-sweatdrops-_

(2) Wheee, I own one, and although I don't have much time to play, I still enjoy it very much... :)

(3) Sorry about that part, I don't remember how I actually wanted it to turn out, but I somehow f--ked it up and couldn't think of any other way to fix it...


	4. Chapter 4

Again, thanks for the reviews! _-big smile-_

**Lionessmon**: Wow, that surprises me... I mean, sometimes I have lots of problems with the thing of setting a character up, but if what I've done is good, yay:))) Yeah, I've noticed that about Mokuba too... kinda disturbing, I mean, hell, he's cute, I wish my brother were more like him! ;)

**kikioblack**: Merci! ;) Hope you like what's coming now too...

* * *

That Sunday, Joey went by his usual morning procedures, and while Mokuba was occupied with a bath, he snuck off to the library; he still wanted to check out the cabinet which Mokuba had described in such a weird voice. He was glad to find the room deserted.

Looking around like a child about to stick his hand in the cookie jar, he plucked out a navy-blue leather-bound album, sat down in a chair next to the cabinet and opened it. He found himself looking at Seto, just a younger version. Joey guessed that he was twelve or even younger on those photos. He had an icy glare and stood at the side of a man Joey had never seen before. Puzzled, Joey flipped through the pictures, each of them showing Seto with his usual expression they all knew too well. Mokuba was missing entirely, and that thought bothered Joey. He also noticed that halfway through the album, the strange man vanished and Seto stood alone, looking very professional despite his young age. When the album was done, Joey closed it and chose a magenta-bound volume.

It proved to be a big "jackpot", so to speak. On the very first picture, he saw a woman and a man smiling at the camera. The woman was holding a baby boy in her arms. Joey stared wide-eyed at the infant, a horrible suspicion rising within him… He flipped forward through more of the baby photos when he found what he sought: a new series of pictures showed a probably two-year-old boy playing with toys, the innocent smile of a child on his face. The hair's shade of brown was unmistakable, as were the blue eyes: he was looking at pictures from Seto's early childhood! Joey felt almost paralyzed. He had really always considered Seto to be half-robot, but this proved perfectly well that he had once been a child like everyone else, without a worry in the world. To his surprise, Joey felt his spirits sink into deep melancholy as he continued with the album. What ever had become of that little boy, what had happened to make him the cold teenager they knew today?

Having finished that album, Joey looked at the others. Most were rather uninteresting, since the pictures only featured people he didn't know at all. Some names were scrawled beneath the images, but they rang no bells in him. Finally, he came across a thinner album crammed between a peach-colored volume and the wall, as if trying to hide it. It was bound in black leather. Joey opened it, and once again he got a feeling of deep sadness, a sadness he would never have guessed to experience in association with Seto Kaiba.

The first picture showed a brown-haired man holding an infant. The man was undoubtedly Seto's father. But there was something odd... he was crying, and Joey had the feeling as if he wasn't crying out of joy. The very next page confirmed his suspicion: it showed a picture of Seto's mother, a beautiful black-haired woman. Underneath the picture were three letters: R.I.P. Joey gasped. So Seto's mother had died… and the way it looked, she had probably died shortly after Mokuba's birth! The next pictures were even more proof: the father was still seen, but she was absent. Even in little Seto's face there seemed to be traces of sadness and bewilderment. Only Mokuba looked as cheerful as all kids his age should. Strangely, Joey felt that his eyes were wet, though not overflowing. He had had no idea… and slowly he began to understand why Seto wasn't cheerful at all. Still; back in his childhood, he had smiled again, even after his mother's death: Joey found a photo were the CEO-to-be was on a swing. An old man was pushing him. The joyful laugh on Seto's face was so touching, yet it was so sad all the same. (1) Now Joey really found himself fighting with his tears. He even found a picture on which Seto posed on the swing, the old man (his grandfather, maybe?) beside him. Little Mokuba was wrapped tightly in Seto's arms. But then it came: on a page near the end, Joey found a cut-out newspaper article that proclaimed the death of Seto's father in a car accident. The yellowing picture showed a coffin. Mokuba was old enough to be standing, and so he did next to his brother. Seto had bowed his head. The old man stood behind the two boys, but unfortunately the picture wasn't good enough for Joey to get a proper glimpse of their faces' expressions. A few dull-spirited pictures followed, and the final picture featured only Seto and Mokuba. Their backs were turned to the camera. They were standing in the rain under a black umbrella Seto was holding. The boys were looking at a building that wasn't too high, yet it seemed to dwarf them; bold letters inscribed it as "orphanage".

Joey slammed the album shut and rubbed at his eyes. The back of his hand was wet when he drew it back.

"Kaiba…" he whispered, gazing numbly at the album.

"…Joey?" a timid voice asked.

Joey looked up and – to his horror – saw Mokuba. The questioning expression of the young teen said it all.

"Hi kid," Joey said in a husky voice.

Mokuba shuffled over and had an almost apologetic look in his storm-grey eyes. "You saw the pictures, right?"

"Yeah." Joey put the album back and closed the cabinet. "I had no idea…" he murmured.

"How could you? We never said anything about it."

"Yeah, but I thought Kaiba was a jerk for no reason at all. But now I see it in a different light…"

"Joey, listen to me! Don't talk about that with Seto! He never talks about that with anyone, not even me! He'd kill you if he finds out that you've been looking at those photos!"

"You can't honestly expect me to keep quiet, do you?" Joey asked incredulously.

Now Mokuba's eyes began to shine too. "I wish you could, but if you can't, please delay it as long as possible! I don't want Seto to do anything to you just because you whirl up memories he tries so hard to rid himself of!"

"Easy now, sport, I'll keep my mouth shut. But… right, your mom died after she had you?"

Mokuba's voice grew smaller and smaller. "Yes… I never knew her. And I didn't learn the truth until our stepfather adopted us." Quite quickly, the tears came, and Mokuba started to sob.

"No… Mokuba, c'mere…" Joey pleaded softly and hoisted the littler boy onto his lap. He willingly allowed his host to claw his fingers into his shirt and weep against his shoulder. Not too much longer on, Joey himself started crying, though he could impossibly tell whether it was over Seto or Mokuba – most probably both. It took the two of them a long while to rid themselves of tears, and they both sought refuge in their rooms to fully calm down in order not to arise suspicions in Seto.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

When Joey saw Seto that evening at dinner, it cost him a lot of self-control to act as if he hadn't had a very private insight of the brunet's life. Ironically, he noticed it anyway, for he asked:

"Mokuba, you're awfully quiet tonight… is something wrong?"

"No, Seto…" the younger sibling muttered, but he couldn't fool anyone. Even Joey would have noticed the lie without having looked at the photos.

Mokuba left the table without a word after dinner was over, and that was when Seto allowed himself to focus on Joey.

"Mutt, what happened?" he demanded sharply.

"Nothing." _'Great, now I'm lying as well. He'll kill me for it…'_ Joey moaned silently.

"Don't bullshit me," Seto told him bluntly.

Joey raised his eyebrows. "I didn't know you could cuss like that, Kaiba."

"You don't know much, so there you go," was the snide retort.

"Maybe Mokuba just slept badly," Joey said, making a feeble attempt to excuse the young one's behavior.

"Nonsense, he was perfectly cheerful when he said hello to me earlier today," Seto snorted.

"Ask him yourself, then. I gotta get ready for school…" Joey sighed and left the table too, leaving a rather confused Seto behind. As soon as he was in his room, he made a phone call without loudspeakers and discussed what he had learned with Yugi and Yami.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Naturally, they all were a bit low-spirited when they met in school that Monday. Each of them swore not to say a word to Seto, though they put Yami in charge of making sure that Bakura would keep his "promise". Luckily, school proved to be so stressing that they didn't have much time to dwell on the new information they had; hence, Joey wasn't able to behave suspiciously, so Seto told himself that he had just been imagining things that evening.

But it wasn't so: on Friday night, when he went to check on Mokuba one last time before going to bed himself, he discovered that Joey was already there. They were talking in hushed voices, and Seto listened because his brother's voice was tearful.

"…I guess you still miss her, right?" Joey asked softly.

"Yeah… I mean, I wish I had known her," Mokuba sniffed.

"It wasn't your fault."

"Still… I sometimes wonder if Seto is mad at me because she died after having me…"

Seto twitched violently. Those words stabbed him like no insult ever had. His face bearing an unseen shocked expression, he peered around the door. Joey was sitting on the bed's edge like an older brother and comfortingly petted Mokuba's hair.

"Never," the blond said firmly, "I may say what I want – you know, I often say that he's a total egoist and such – but of one thing I'm sure: Kaiba loves you, and he'd never hate you for that."

"How can you be so sure?"

"Hey, he's your brother, and he cares about you very much. Look at me, even! I wouldn't hate Serenity if our mom had died after having her, I'm absolutely positive about that!"

"Mama…" Mokuba barely uttered that word before breaking into a weeping fit again.

"Easy now, little champ," Joey said, sounding as if he were chanting as he took the boy into his arms and rocked him a bit, "It's alright… remember, you've still got Kaiba – and me. I wish I could do more for you, but… well…" He didn't bother to explain and instead busied himself with calming down Mokuba.

Outside the door, Seto barely managed to watch or listen anymore. Never before had the two Kaiba brothers spoken to anybody about their mother… and deep, deep down inside of him, a little boy's voice cried out how he missed her as well; other than Mokuba, Seto had lived with her for a few years and knew how she had been. But it was woeful agony to hear his brother's doubts; his worries whether he hated him for being born, so to speak. Seto held his head as if in pain and slumped against the wall. A million thoughts ran through his mind, thoughts of which he only managed to grasp a few:

_'What have I done? What have I done to give Mokuba a reason to think that? Is it because of the attitude I acquired from my stepfather's treatment? Don't ever say that again, little brother… Wheeler's right, I love you…!'_

Suddenly, he heard Joey say as if from a far distance:

"I'll go to bed now, okay? If anything's wrong, call me and I'll come."

"O-Okay… thanks, Joey," a tear-stricken voice croaked.

"Sleep tight, Mokuba. And remember: you haven't done anything wrong."

Seto silently slipped into the next room. He felt a bit childish as he stood there in the darkness, pressed against the wall like a secret agent. He listened attentively and heard how the blond closed the door to his brother's bedroom.

"Poor little kid," he heard him sigh ruefully. Then muffled footsteps sounded out on the carpet, and he saw part of Joey's shadow dancing in the corridor as the teen headed for his own room. Only when all was quiet again did Seto venture forth from his hideout and paid the planned bedtime visit to his brother, though this time with additional intentions.

"Mokuba?" he whispered as he entered the dark room.

A shadow jerked upward, and in the dim light from the corridor he saw two shining eyes – shining with tears. "S-S-Seto!"

"Thought I'd check on you before you fall asleep," his brother said softly and sat on the bed's edge like Joey had done before.

Mokuba said nothing, but averted his gaze as if in shame. Seto used the moment to turn on the bedside light at its dimmest level. He saw that his younger brother's cheeks were still damp with tears.

"Listen, Mokuba," he began, feeling a bit uncomfortable, "I… I by chance heard what you discussed with the mutt– Wheeler, I mean," he corrected himself, deciding that it probably wasn't wise to call Joey names in front of his now emotionally labile brother, who was quite taken with the blond anyway.

"Seto… I never wanted Mama to die…!" Mokuba squeaked with a hearty sniff.

For once completely laying down his cold businessman's attitude and switching fully into big-brother-mode, Seto laid his hands on his sibling's shoulders and said gently:

"Mokuba, look at me." He waited until that happened before continuing: "I never blamed you for our mother's death. How can you even say that you 'didn't mean for that to happen'? You were just… well, a baby. And because I overheard your previous conversation, I know about your worries. After all these years… Mokuba, you must believe what Wheeler said: I love you, and I always will. I love you more than life, I couldn't possibly hate you. You're the only real friend I've ever had. No words can describe how important you are to me."

"Big brother… Seto… you know I love you too…" Mokuba whined.

"I know you do. There's one thing I'd like to ask of you."

"Yes?"

"Please, don't ever get such doubts about us again. Hearing you voice your worry about me hating you was the most hurtful thing I've ever heard. Promise me that you won't ever put me through that again, and I swear I won't give you any reason to think that way ever again, okay?"

Mokuba stared in wonder at his brother. It had been many years since he had last seen him remotely in this state: for once, the blue eyes weren't hard at all, but soft and compassionate. It was a most graceful addition to Seto's appearance and changed exactly that quite remarkably. It thrilled the young Kaiba to see his brother like that again. He wished Joey could see it…

"Yes, Seto. I promise. I'm sorry for hurting you!" he cried apologetically and flung his arms around his brother.

"It's alright, Mokuba…" Seto felt as if he were almost singing to his brother as he hugged him back. Finally, he let the raven-haired boy fall back onto his sheets. To his relief, a faint smile graced the young face once more.

"Goodnight, Seto," Mokuba whispered.

"Sweet dreams, Mokuba," Seto whispered back and let his hand lightly brush across his forehead. Then he got up, switched out the light and left the room.

Mokuba snuggled up deeper into his blankets and smiled contently. He hadn't even known that the word "sweet" existed in his brother's vocabulary.

* * *

Riiiiiiiiiiight... sorry about that, but I just couldn't resist! I absolutely love scenes like that... _-sigh-_ :)

(1) Actually, that's a (flashback) scene from "Yu-Gi-Oh! The Shadow Games". I thought it was so cute... Christ, he looked so innocent! _-happy squeal-_


	5. Chapter 5

As usual, first off I'd like to thank my reviewers - your feedbacks make me sooo happy... :))) I hope to hear more from you...

**kikioblack**: Yay, I'm glad you liked it! I know what you mean; every time I read something like that, I find myself going "Sweeeeeet!" or "Awwwww!". God knows I'm addicted to that stuff, although many think it's quite cheesy, but I say what the heck! ;)

**DarkOne0000000000**: _-is very happy-_ Great, hope you love the rest of it as well :-)

* * *

That Sunday, Joey made himself a large sandwich for breakfast so he could take the food outside as he went to explore the mansion's garden. It wasn't much, but at least it had nice paths, a few flower beds and even two swings. Joey stopped when he saw those: immediately, he was reminded of the photo on which Seto was laughing as he swung back and forth. Sighing, Joey sat onto one of the swings, reminiscing yet again about what news he had learned of the Kaiba family's history. It was a tale that shouldn't happen to any child, he thought.

"Mutt!" a familiar voice interrupted his thoughts.

Joey looked up and saw Seto. Like last weekend, the brunet wore the blue men's shirt and the black romp-around-at-home pants.

"Mornin', Kaiba," Joey replied neutrally.

"I've got a bone to pick with you." Seto smirked at his own joke.

Joey pretended not to hear, for a change. "Yeah? What did I do?"

"Why did you talk to Mokuba about our mother? How did you know of her, anyway?" Seto asked in a dangerously low voice, towering over the blond.

"Ah… well, I was rooting around in the library and found some photos…"

An unmistakable flare of anger blazed in Seto's cerulean eyes as he hissed like a mad snake: "Don't you dare **ever** tell anyone about that, or you're toast, mutt!"

"Chill out, okay?" Joey asked irritably.

Then he witnessed something unusual: a faint wisp of hurt showed itself in the CEO's face, and in a quieter voice he said:

"Why did you confront Mokuba with that? Why did you make him doubt that I… I…" He paused. None of Joey's friends, let alone the blond himself, had ever heard him use the word he was about to say next, and his pride strained to keep him from saying it out loud.

"…love him?" Joey finished in his place, "Look, I didn't know he would doubt that you love him. It was a coincidence that he even found out that I know. And besides, nobody can run from anything forever."

"Do you have any idea what I went through when I heard what Mokuba said yesterday?"

"You eavesdropped?" Joey asked, narrowing his eyes.

"Coincidentally, yes. Well?" Seto demanded, his arms crossed.

"How should I know? I'm not you…" Joey answered with an uneasy shrug.

Seto glared at him, but to the blond's surprise gave an honest answer: "Mokuba is the only real friend I have, and to lose him is something I can't imagine. I vowed to take care of him and always be there for him. Such a doubt is worse than any insult or whatever."

"Look, that wasn't my intention!"

Seto sighed, hesitated and then added with reluctance: "However, I appreciate that you comforted him a bit before I stopped by."

Joey grinned, though his eyes mirrored disbelief. "**You** appreciate something **I** did? That's a new one."

"Don't get used to it," Seto remarked dryly.

"Not a chance," Joey laughed and finished his sandwich. Then he kicked off the ground, starting to swing. Seto stood just beside his range of swinging and watched with a cold expression as the blond swung higher and higher. "C'mon, Moneybags, how about a swing?" Joey asked.

"That's for children," Seto commented dismissively.

"I know you can do it, I saw you on a photo." Ignoring the death glare that was sent his way, he continued: "You know, now that I think about it, I challenge you. I bet that you can't swing as high as I can."

"I've still got work to do, unlike **some** people I know," Seto contradicted pointedly.

"Don't tell me that Seto Kaiba backs down from a challenge!" Joey jeered as he swung higher still.

Seto ground his teeth; his weak spot had been hit. It was true that he couldn't resist a challenge, no matter what kind. He would play a lot more games with Mokuba if his younger brother only got the idea to challenge him. It had been years since he had been challenged to anything else but Duel Monsters, and now, on both occasions Joey had been responsible.

"Challenge accepted," he growled and took a seat on the other swing.

Joey laughed amusedly. "You sound like a freakin' computer, Kaiba!"

"Better than a mutt," was the sharp retort, and Joey watched interestedly as the brunet joined in the little game, quickly gaining more altitude. After a while, they were even swinging synchronically.

Joey discovered that he was eying the competitive CEO with wonder. He had never before seen Seto like in that moment, one of those moments when one registers every movement the other makes: he saw how a few wild chestnut bangs danced around Seto's face in the swinging motion, he saw how the wind ruffled the sky-blue shirt, and he saw the fire of determination in the blue eyes of the other, especially when their gazes met.

Seto experienced something similar: he watched as the seemingly untamable mop of blond hair whirled wildly around the still quite boyish face of the other teen. Like it did with himself, the wind made Joey's rather loose clothes flutter. The blond's mouth was slightly open in a little "o" of wonder, and the honey-amber-colored eyes were filled with a gaze as pure as that of a child. Even without looking at a mirror, Seto knew that his own gaze was totally different from that. (1)

"What are you looking at?" he asked Joey, "Stunned by my superior skills?"

That seemed to make the other teen snap out of his daze: "Dream on, Kaiba!" And as an afterthought: "All you need to do now is laugh, and I'd be completely baffled."

"…Laugh?" Seto repeated.

"Yes, laugh, like so." Joey gave a short example, a taste of his own laugh. "Imagine that you're getting closer and closer to the sky, closer to reaching the top goal…!"

It turned out that as they went even higher, Joey indeed burst into childish laugher. (2) To his at first slight disappointment, Seto didn't join in, but he contributed something else that made the blond quite happy to see: the usually thin-line mouth curved upwards, though not in a smirk or a grin, but a smile. A genuine smile.

The rest of the "challenge" seemed to pass by like a summertime dream, then Joey said:

"To finish it off, let's jump."

"From this height?! You're nuts!" Seto exclaimed.

"No, no, silly, not so high! Let's just relax a little and jump off when we're lower!"

And so they stopped enhancing the swinging motion and waited for the altitude to drop. While that happened, Joey gambled a bit and asked hesitantly:

"D'you remember doing this as a boy?"

At first, Seto just glared at the ground, but then he lifted his face to the sky with a neutral expression on it. "Dimly."

Joey smiled all the same. He was glad that he had found that the CEO could also do perfectly normal things – it sure helped him change his general view of the master duelist. For a short moment, he was dazed: what was happening to him? Why was he suddenly thinking like that of someone who had been mean to him for as long as he could remember?

_'Must be because I've been here for two weeks now,'_ Joey thought, trying to find a reason.

"Lost in space, Wheeler?" he heard Seto ask.

"No…" he fibbed.

And to his great surprise, Seto moved on to a personal issue, though his tone of voice was not mocking or sarcastic in any way: "Thinking about your father?"

Joey twitched. Bitterness, fear and hatred mixed themselves on his face, turning it into a mask that overshadowed the cheerfulness he usually displayed. "Well… yeah, I kinda wonder what he's doing now. I guess that means that you're kicking me out soon, right?" he sighed with a ruefulness that surprised himself.

Seto didn't answer. He hadn't thought about that yet. _'Come to think of it, I think it's been at least a week since I last thought about kicking Wheeler out,' _he thought.

"It's okay if you don't want to answer. You don't have to. I'm gonna jump now," Joey interrupted his short train of thoughts.

"What?" Seto asked, but it was too late: Joey jumped off the swing, landing quite securely on his feet like a cat. When he whirled around to face the brunet, the mask had vanished from his face, which was now bright again. "Now you, Kaiba!"

"Fine," Seto grumbled and jumped. Unfortunately, his landing wasn't quite as clean, and he stumbled. He surely would have fallen if two arms hadn't caught him. The next thing he knew, he was almost on his knees and being supported by Joey. Seto realized how his face felt uncomfortably warmer than usual as he straightened again.

"Whoa, Kaiba, that could've backfired," Joey joked.

"But it didn't."

"Yeah. Look… I'll be inside… probably in my room…" He didn't need to say more; Seto already knew that he would go prepare his stuff in order to leave the residence the very same day. And then he did something that he couldn't control: he grabbed Joey's arm, stopping the blond. The other teen looked back, a look that was a cross between a dare and curiosity in his at times puppyish eyes.

"What, Rich Boy?" he asked. The mocking nickname was only a disguise to veil his confusion.

"You don't need to pack, Wheeler."

"…Come again?" Joey asked faintly.

"You heard me. You don't need to pack, I'm not kicking you out."

Joey retreated a step until his arm was hanging at his side again. Seto let go of it in that moment. "Why? I thought you were longing for the day to get 'the dog' out of the house…"

"So? I've decided against it. I haven't seen Mokuba this happy in a long time, and because you're the reason for that, you may stay. And…" He paused significantly before adding: "…you're not all that bad, Wheeler."

Joey was gawking at him in astonishment. When the brunet had finished talking, he felt as if his knees were made of rubber. "You're serious, Kaiba?"

"Since when am I not serious?" was the sarcastic retort.

"Thank you!" Joey grasped the other's hand and squeezed it tightly, in fact almost wringing it. "God, I never thought I'd say this, but: many thanks indeed, Kaiba! I don't wanna go back to Dad…"

"Then you don't have to. Now let go of my hand."

"Oh. Yes. …Sorry." Joey hastily let go. He felt his face get very warm – too warm for his comfort…! "Um… I'll go tell Mokuba, okay?" he asked quickly.

Seto just nodded. Then Joey turned around and ran for the house. As he ran, he felt his face flush with more than just the adrenaline that came from running. On his way to Mokuba's room, he passed a mirror which confirmed his suspense: his face was red, but not only from running. He was also blushing! Joey slapped his forehead and sighed in relief. Thank God he had escaped so quickly, otherwise Seto would surely have seen that… and then what? Who knew.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

The rest of the day was simply what one song was titled like: a "beautiful Sunday". Mokuba was overjoyed that his older brother had allowed Joey to stay and gladly showed all of it as he practically knocked the air out of Seto upon seeing him again. On Friday of the following week, the gang hung around together at lunch break, as usual.

"Guys, I've got news," Joey announced.

"All hail Joey, we know. Just joking," Tristan laughed at the playful scowl his friend sent his way, "What's up?"

"Kaiba's coming back to school, starting next week."

"Why?" Tea asked.

"He says that it's part of how it goes: he works for a long while full-time as the CEO of Kaiba Corp., then goes back to school for a few weeks, and so it goes on and on."

"It's been ages since he was here last," Ryou commented.

"See? That's what I was talking about. He spends more time at the office than at school."

"So, you two are cool now?" Tristan asked.

"Yeah, I guess so." Joey had already told him about the last weekend, and his friends had been quite relieved and very happy for him. "Hey guys, I just got an idea. How about if we get together for Halloween?"

"Why are you asking that?" Yugi wondered, "It's the middle of September, and we **always** get together for Halloween…"

"Yeah, buddy, I know, but how about celebrating it at Kaiba's mansion this year?" (3)

"Eh?! How are you gonna make **that** happen?" Tristan exclaimed.

"I'll talk to our old friend. Who knows, maybe he'll listen to me now," Joey answered with a wink.

"It **would** be cool…" Yugi muttered as he pictured it.

"I'll give it a shot. Hey, tell Yami and Bakura that they can come too."

"Bakura? What makes you think he'd come?" Ryou asked nervously.

"Dunno. Tell him he gets to scare lots of people, I bet he'll like that…" Joey sniggered.

"I'll ask," Ryou said, though not sounding too hopeful.

"I bet you can count on Mokuba's support," Tea said to Joey.

The blond laughed. "Yeah. He's great! You know, sometimes I wish Kaiba were a bit more like him!"

"But you said you've already played games and been on the swings with him; how much more do you expect?" Tea asked.

"I thought there's a saying: 'there's always room for improvement'."

"Yeah, but with Kaiba –" Tristan tried to argue.

"Even with Kaiba," Joey interrupted him firmly.

"Wow, has your view on Kaiba changed so much because of what you've learned about him?" Ryou asked in wonder.

"Yeah. He's not that bad of a guy."

"Oh man, I'd never have guessed to hear you say that…!" Tristan said with a theatrical groan. The gang shared a laugh together before it was time to go back to class.

* * *

(1) Again, sorry, but I couldn't resist that, either. But hey, isn't that the way things usually go in such a situation? ;)

(2) I do that... of course, only when no one else is around! _-grins-_

(3) That's the part I'm working on right now... and I'm getting drugged up on touchy songs in the process (although; what else is new??)... :-D


	6. Chapter 6

Man, I can't believe that vacation's almost over... _-argl-_ If only there was no such thing as school... _-sigh-_

Oh, reviewers, you make my day! Somehow I'm always thinking 'Any moment now they'll think it's bad...', but I guess I'm mistaken. :) You guys make me so happy, many many thanks to you all!

**kikioblack**: That's the way it goes with all my stories at first. Usually I always type at least 50 pages before considering whether I should post it or not - therefore, I always have quite a bit of text to work with and keep you supplied with! Plus, I want to get as much of this done as I can before school starts, 'cause I have the feeling that I won't have much time for this anymore once school starts, so after Monday it might be a while before I'll update again... The party was quite fun to write, I wish there'd be something like that around here! Although, the guests would never be as cool as in this story..._ -grins-_

**Lionessmon**: Yay, thanks a lot for the compliment! I try to do my best, and reviews as positive as the ones I'm getting right now are the perfect motivation :)

* * *

That evening, Joey was reminded of something at dinner.

"You promised to watch a movie with me, remember?" Mokuba asked the blond.

"Oh?" Actually, he had forgotten, but he was certainly thankful for the reminder. "Sure, sport. Whatever you want. D'you already know which one?"

"Yeah, it's called 'The Music Box'." (1)

"What kind of movie is that?" Seto asked, listlessly pushing the rest of his food around on his plate.

"Why, you wanna watch too?" Joey asked back.

"No. I just… want to know," Seto replied carefully.

"…A thriller," Mokuba answered after a moment of consideration.

Seto arched his eyebrow. "A thriller?" he repeated. That was quite a contrast to what his brother usually watched…

Mokuba just beamed and carried his plate back to the kitchen.

"Listen up, Wheeler," Seto said in a low voice, "You turn it off if he gets too scared."

"Yeah, yeah," Joey assured him casually. Seto only gave him a glare to emphasize that he really meant it and wasn't to be mistaken. "If you're not gonna watch with us, what're you doing, then?" Joey suddenly asked.

"I've still got work to do," Seto replied with a huff.

"Figures. Mokuba! When does the movie start?"

"10. Shall we play something until then?"

"Good idea. I'll be right with you."

"Wheeler!" Seto hissed. A movie that started so late… that usually meant no good. "Remember what I told you!"

"Don't worry, I'll look out for him. Or don't you trust me?" Joey grinned.

Seto rolled his eyes, then brought his own plate to the kitchen. Joey smirked at his retreating back and proceeded to finish his own food.

He played various games with Mokuba for two hours until the movie came on. Seto was in his study, so they (particularly Mokuba) had no restraints in romping around a bit as they prepared for the movie. It was a shame that there was no popcorn in the house, Joey thought as they let themselves fall onto the couch. Mokuba turned off the lights ("That's the best way to watch TV!") while Joey switched on the device. They were just in time; on a black screen, white text indicated:

_"Warning! This movie is not suitable for children under 16."_

Joey looked at Mokuba with a look that resembled Seto's skeptic one. Mokuba returned the gaze in the same way, but a grin was on his face all along. Then they both laughed shortly, choosing to ignore the warning. They wouldn't have gotten around to see the movie if Seto had been there – ah, but he wasn't.

It turned out to be a very creepy movie; so creepy, in fact, that Joey wondered whether Mokuba had remembered wrongly, if it had been labeled "horror" instead of "thriller". But maybe it was "horror-thriller". In any case, it was a rather disturbing tale: a child pretended to die just so it would be alone for a while. The people around it believed it was dead and buried it alive. All the while, it held a music box (hence the film title) in its hand. While it lay in the ground waiting to be dug up again, the child wound up the box, and a freaky tune played. It was beautiful, but sad and a bit bone-chilling. Sometimes the little human even sang along in a deadpan voice, singing about hearts that stopped beating. (2) As the movie went on for one-and-a-half hours without anyone coming to the child's aid, while the music still played, Mokuba started to get freaked out; Joey noticed that because of the younger Kaiba's wide eyes and his disability to sit still.

"Still hanging in there?" Joey whispered, touching the kid's arm.

"Y-Yeah, s-sure…"

"Shall I turn it off?"

"N-No!" Mokuba protested, "Just… leave it…"

Joey remembered Seto's warning, but he also respected Mokuba's wish. It probably was one of the first times that the young teen watched a real movie, let alone a horror-thriller. He remembered that a few years ago, he and his classmates had bet each other real money to watch the most disgusting/creepy movies. It was a way to find your limits, and that was probably what Mokuba was after, so in the end Joey didn't turn it off.

When the movie was almost over and Mokuba barely could stand it anymore, the film people finally dug up the child – and yet that eerie tune didn't stop. It was the last thing they heard as the final credit whizzed across the screen. For a moment, all was still, and then a burst of noise indicated the begin of the commercial before the next movie.

"Whew! That was… weird," Joey commented unsurely.

"Yeah," Mokuba replied flatly.

Joey checked his watch; it was almost midnight. "Time for bed," he said and turned off the TV for good.

To his slight surprise, Mokuba didn't protest and hopped right to it. Since Seto was so busy with work that he lost track of the time, Joey took over the "duty" of tucking the boy in. But while the blond teen managed to fall asleep quite easily, Mokuba found that hard to do. He kept turning around in his bed, the tune echoing in his mind, eventually provoking a nightmare.

_**He**__ was the child in the coffin. Trapped in the earth, not knowing if he'd ever see the light of day again. And there was nothing but that creepy music box to keep him company…_

Mokuba jerked awake with a scream. Haunted by his dream, he jumped out of bed and made a beeline for his brother's bedroom.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Seto finally glanced at the clock. 1 am. Oh shoot. He yawned heartily, not caring because he wasn't being watched in his study.

_'Time to turn in,'_ he thought for himself as he shut down his laptop.

He entered his room in half sleep-mode, groping for his pajamas. He didn't even really register putting them on. What he did register, however, was the form his hands stumbled on as he attempted to crawl onto his bed. Something was under his covers. Puzzled, Seto pulled back the sheets – only to find a frightened Mokuba waiting for him.

"Mokuba?" he mumbled.

"Seto!" Right away, the younger sibling latched onto his brother, holding him tightly. Seto knew this type of grip: it was the one of fear.

"What's wrong? Why are you so scared?" he asked, holding the youngster comfortingly.

"I… I had a nightmare…"

"Was it that –?" Bad, he had wanted to say, but Mokuba interrupted him:

"I still hear it."

"Hear what?" Seto asked, getting fully awake again.

"The tune. The tune from that music box…" came a whimper.

"…It was the movie, right?" Seto finally guessed, frowning.

"Yes…"

His older brother spat with disgust. "Damn! Wheeler!"

"Seto…?"

"I told him to make sure you don't get too scared! God, I should've known that he's too stupid to follow orders! I'll get him…!" He shifted as he prepared to stand up, barge into Joey's room and harshly wake up the other teen to give him a long speech of rants about his uselessness. But – as it seemed to happen constantly – Mokuba interfered, standing up for their guest yet again.

"Seto, no! You've got it all wrong! It's not Joey's fault!"

"Mokuba, how come you always stand up for that mutt?" Seto asked irritably.

"I mean it! He even asked me if he should turn it off! I was the one who said no!"

"But… why? I mean, you were… well, freaking out, weren't you?" Seto asked, not understanding what drove his brother to do what he did.

"I… I thought it'd be babyish of me to chicken out more than halfway through the movie," Mokuba admitted timidly.

His brother sighed and pulled him close again. "Mokuba, there's nothing bad about admitting that you're scared of that."

"But **you're** never scared. You always said being scared is like being weak."

"I can get scared too. And besides – you would only be admitting it to Wheeler, which I hope doesn't mean admitting it to the whole world. If your close friends know you're scared, that's alright. It all depends on whom you inform about your fear."

"Oh. But… what are you scared of?"

"Losing you," Seto whispered.

Mokuba managed a smile. That was his brother as he knew him – devoted, kind and caring. Happily, he snuggled up closer in a silent promise that he wouldn't be going anywhere. Then he asked softly:

"Seto?"

"Hmm?"

"…Please don't get mad at Joey," Mokuba pleaded.

He felt and heard his brother sigh. "I doubt that you were lying before, so I agree. I won't get mad at Wheeler."

"You won't kick him out, right?"

Now Seto cracked a smile. "No, I won't."

"Yay!" Mokuba felt much better now and freed himself from his brother's embrace, then hopped off the bed. "Sorry for keeping you awake, Seto. Sleep well."

"You know you can come to me anytime, Mokuba. Sleep well too."

The youngster nodded, then crept silently out of the room. Seto finally let himself fall onto his bed, lazily covering himself with the blankets and falling asleep almost instantly.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Saturday morning found Seto in the living room, watching the news on TV while sipping his routine black coffee. Although his eyes were on the screen, he was actually half spaced-out, thinking about his current life situation: spending three quarters of his time in the office, half of the rest of the time at school and preciously little time at home with his brother. And Joey Wheeler had been living here for three weeks now.

As if on cue, a figure stepped in front of him, blocking the TV screen from view. Seto blinked and looked up. There was Joey, dressed completely in blue today. He had crossed his arms behind his back and was looking fidgety.

"What is the meaning of this, Wheeler?"

"Um… Kaiba, there's something I gotta tell you."

Instead of sitting straight again as he usually did, Seto let himself lean back even more and crossed his arms (somehow, Joey found, that was even more unnerving than his usual behavior). "What? That you're not house-trained after all?" he teased.

"Ha, ha," Joey replied bleakly, but was serious right away again: "Um… You know about what you told me yesterday? About the movie?"

Seto felt his inner self smirk, though externally he kept the same rigid face. He knew what was coming next, but he was curious to see how Joey would handle it. "Yes…?" he prompted him, one eyebrow arched in his traditional Kaiba-fashion.

"Well, the movie was sorta creepy, and Mokuba freaked a bit… and… and I failed to obey your request. I didn't turn it off. …Sorry," he added in a very low mumble. He tried to conjure up a weak apologetic grin, but gave up and simply averted his gaze.

Normally, Seto would either have erupted or given a sarcastic comment, but this time he simply grinned.

_'Test passed, puppy,'_ he thought. Right away, though, he froze. What had he just been thinking?! **Puppy**?! **Wheeler**?! He was the "mutt", not the "puppy"… wasn't he? Seto looked absolutely horrified at his thoughts.

In that moment, Joey decided to look back his older host, surprised that he hadn't heard anything from him so far. He saw the brunet stare at him, eyes widened in what looked like shock – or it could be anger, for all he knew. Joey didn't have time to be surprised at that; instead, he swallowed and thought:

_'Oh great, now I'm in for it! He's probably getting ready to yell at me…'_

Finally, Seto snapped out of it, and Joey's worried face swam back into view. One look into the blond's face was all it took to read what he was thinking: that his stay, his refuge at the Kaiba residence was over for good. Seto shook his head briefly, then heard himself say:

"Sit, Wheeler."

Joey gave a noise that sounded suspiciously like a whine as he gingerly sat down next to the CEO. Seto didn't look at him, but he didn't see the news he was supposedly watching, either. For a moment, they were both silent, and then they spoke at the same time:

"I'll go get my stuff…"

"You didn't do anything wrong…"

They both silenced simultaneously as well, looking rather startled at each other. And while Joey's cheeks turned pink with a faint blush, Seto just cleared his throat, his eyes darting around nervously.

"You first…" Joey muttered, looking at his hands.

"Yes… Listen, Wheeler, I'm not – I repeat, **not** – kicking you out."

This regained Joey's attention. "Huh?" he asked, his head snapping back up to meet the other boy's gaze, "But… the movie… Mokuba…"

"I talked with him yesterday, and he told me everything. I know that you actually obeyed my order, but that Mokuba convinced you to leave the movie on anyhow."

One of Joey's eyes gave a twitch. "You mean I apologized to you for nothing?!"

"Not entirely." Now Seto was smirking again. "I was quite curious to see how you'd handle it."

To his surprise, Joey didn't give a retort; instead, the blond pouted a bit, but only shortly – soon his face lit up again. "So you're not kicking me out?" he repeated.

"Exactly," Seto replied, his brow furrowing in response to the unnecessarily repeated statement of his.

Joey grinned and crossed his arms in the same fashion like the CEO. "You're really not all that bad, Kaiba."

Seto just shrugged and decided to make an honest attempt to concentrate on the news. However, his plans were interfered with: he felt a certain foot nudge his leg. Once. Twice. Three times. All the while, the blond kept an astoundingly straight face.

"Wheeler…" Seto growled when it became too much.

"What?" Joey asked innocently.

"Stop touching me."

"Who? **Me**?"

"Don't play dumb."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Joey said and started whistling an annoying tune. Seto gave an impatient "Hmpf!" and turned back to the screen. This time, he was too focused on something else to see Joey snatch something from the arm lean.

"By the way: Kaiba?"

The brunet sighed in annoyance. "**What**?" he asked, putting an immense stress on the word as he turned to face Joey with his worst glare. But all he saw was something white being shoved into his face. For a moment, the thing stuck to him, suffocating him slowly, but then it dropped, and he was looking at a maliciously grinning Joey. Seto narrowed his eyes and pursed his lips as an outburst came up within him, but before he could release it, Joey started to almost laugh his head off as he pointed in a frank manner at the other teen.

"Ha! That expression of yours! Priceless! God, I'll die laughing…!"

Seto noticed the pillow that lay between them. So **that** was what had been pushed into his face. While Joey was laughing very hard indeed, he picked up the pillow and sent it flying with a curt flick of his wrist. It hit Joey smack in the face, stifling his laughter.

"From you to me, from me to you," Seto explained matter-of-factly.

At first, Joey seemed flabbergasted, but then he let out a bark of laughter and pounced on his on-and-off schoolmate. Seto was caught entirely by surprise. The shocked expression on his face turned into a strangled grin as he felt Joey's hands glide up and down his sides, tickling him. Seto hadn't experienced this in many years – he wouldn't even have known if he was ticklish or not. He started shaking with the effort to stifle his laughter. The fact that Joey's broadly grinning face was so close didn't help either.

"Gotcha!" he heard the blond mutter gleefully, then the tickling increased, and finally Seto couldn't hold it back any longer: he opened his mouth and burst into laughter. He laughed loud and long. Not even Mokuba would remember when he had last laughed like that.

Joey was impressed at how much the other teen had changed within a minute or two: the usual frown or sarcastic smirk was replaced by a laughing smile, the blue eyes were firmly closed because he was laughing so hard and the pale cheeks had turned red. And then he heard the brunet utter two shaky words:

"S-Stop… p-p-please…!"

This made Joey freeze for a couple of seconds. **Please**? Had he just heard the world "please" from the "rich bastard" whom he had always believed to not even **know** that word?! Stopping was a big mistake for him; sensing an opportunity to turn the tables around, Seto lunged at him, and this time the blond was the one being pinned down. And he was getting a taste of his own medicine. In a flash, Seto had him shrieking with laughter, and no matter how much he struggled, the CEO wasn't letting him go. Joey's hands jerkily found their way back to Seto's sides, and soon they were at each other's mercy. They fell off the couch in the process, but didn't care about that as they slowly inched closer to the TV, rolling over each time they switched the dominant position. Their united laughter rang far and clear, causing everyone who heard it to perk up in wonder. Mokuba was one of those people and dashed off in the direction of the voices, wondering what the commotion was about.

He found his older brother engaged in a furious fight that involved vicious tickling with Joey. Mokuba stared.

_'Wow… Seto's laughing… laughing like he probably used to many, many years ago…'_ he thought in wonder as he watched them.

As they switched the positions yet again, Joey suddenly caught sight of the raven-haired boy. He grinned, then poked Seto in the chest and thus made him terminate another "attack". He merely pointed in Mokuba's direction. Seto looked, and to the astonishment of the two others, his face flushed anew as he hastily scrambled off Joey. In turn, the blond tried to catch his breath again as he sat back up. Mokuba grinned.

"Having fun?"

Joey laughed a bit. "What d'you think?"

Mokuba giggled, then addressed his brother directly. "…Seto?"

No response came as his older brother tried to sort himself out again, but because the rush of excitement was still running through his veins, he visibly failed at regaining his usual attitude back. Mokuba sighed.

"I didn't know that you can laugh like that, big brother."

_'I didn't know I could, either,'_ Seto thought for himself, but mumbled: "I guess…" He stood up and pretended that he still had a lot of things to do. "I'll get back to work…" He deliberately didn't look remotely in Joey's direction as he left the living room. As he passed his younger brother, Mokuba gave him a firm, delighted hug, and then the brunet departed in an even more rapid pace.

"Wow, Joey… you're amazing," Mokuba commented once they were alone.

"Am I?" Joey asked, heaving himself back onto the couch.

"Yeah. In just three weeks, Seto's played games, been on the swings and now even had a play-fight! And it's all because of you."

"Don't think I'm actually planning that – at least, most of it. Usually I just do things spontaneously. I don't know why he really agreed to do all those things."

"Because you challenged him. You know about his competitive nature."

"I guess so," the blond replied with an amused grin, "Hey, there's something I wanted to ask you."

"Fire away."

"D'you think it's possible that the others could come here to celebrate Halloween this year?"

Mokuba's eyes lit up. "Halloween? You mean a real party?!" (3)

"Yeah. You know, we could use that room you guys never use…"

"That would be so cool!" Mokuba squealed happily.

"I know, but you must ask Kaiba, too. He'll kill us if we just plan something behind his back."

The boy nodded eagerly. "I'll talk to him, promise."

"What would I do without you?" Joey sighed happily.

"Dunno," was Mokuba's answer. Case closed.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Seto slammed the door to his study shut and leaned against it. Finally, he had escaped! He took a deep breath as he calmed himself down.

_'Why did I do that? Why did I fight back? It's so childish, so stupid…' _

But even in his thoughts, it felt like a bad lie. It may be childish, but he hadn't found it stupid. No. In fact, he had enjoyed it – and that troubled him more than everything else. In addition, he remembered exactly how he had felt in those few carefree moments when he had really been able to let go and catch up a bit on doing things he had been denied by his stepfather: he had felt entirely good. He had found delight in doing what he had done. The interaction with Joey had pleased him like few things he had ever done before.

_'Why did I like being so close to him? Why am I wishing that it could have gone on and on?!'_

He was torn between strictly staying in the life he had led until Joey had entered his house and, on the other hand, giving in to the other teen's cheerfulness that made him do long-forgotten things. There were two solutions to that troublesome question: option number 1, find a compromise; and option number 2, get rid of Joey entirely so he wouldn't ever do those "kiddy things" anymore. Seto shook his head as he went to his desk, where he sat down but didn't turn on his computer. No, he couldn't kick Joey out; the part of him that had enjoyed their last interaction vehemently protested that, and he had told him he wouldn't send him away. Seto sighed. Thank heavens he'd have school for a while again – usually, that kept him busy enough that he didn't have time for such things.

* * *

(1) I got that idea from listening to a song by Rammstein, "Spieluhr" (translation!). God, it's such a great song... :)))

(2) I don't know if there's a music video for that song, but that's how I'd picture it. A friend of mine once advised me to listen to that song when all the lights were turn off... boy, that was creepy, but kinda cool anyway! ;)

(3) I've finished typing that now - and be prepared, that will be one hell of a long chapter! (it just doesn't seem right to me to cut it off in the middle of the party, so I hope you'll forgive me when I post that...)


	7. Chapter 7

Whoopee, you guys are the BEST!! _-hugs everyone-_ Thanks for those great reviews! I'm so glad you're all enjoying this fic...:)))

**darkgryphonmage**: Hehe, when I re-read my fic now, I realize that it's actually quite a while before those walls really start to crumble. But God, I'm caught up with the desire for romance... (_-is a hopeless case when it comes to that-_)

**Lionessmon**: Admittedly, I was partially inspired for that by reading about that in a few other fics, though the idea faintly crossed my mind before as well. Man, I wish they'd draw an "episode-for-fun" or something where we'd get to see such things... ;-) (Oh yeah, sorry if my translation wasn't that great - I wasn't sure how to translate it and used LEO...)

**Lareske**: Ooh, I'm curious to see what you have to say when you read that part of the story... BTW, what would you say to a bit of fluff after the party?? (not to mention what I'm working on now, might I add) About the German: really?! I'm quite picky with it... and boy, do I ever wish that Swiss German would be the standard language at school, it's amazing how many kids actually consider High German to be kinda like a foreign language (we think it sounds so snobby, but perhaps we just met and heard the wrong Germans)...

Now forgive me as I retire to bed... gotta get up at 5.15 AM tomorrow, so I'll be bushed until about 8 AM... (damn, isn't that the pits?! a one-hour journey to school, stay there for an hour, and then go right home again! _-argl-_)

* * *

For the rest of the weekend, he kept a certain distance between him and Joey; he just wanted some time alone to think. While Mokuba didn't understand this sudden change of attitude, Joey did and even respected that. Then Monday had come again, and for the first time, Seto found himself not going to school alone.

The very instant he and Joey stepped out of the limousine, people's heads turned, and some even started pointing and whispering. Seto growled and approached the building in his usual rapid stride. He noted with smugness that the others still had enough respect to get out of his way immediately. Joey tailed along behind, not making any efforts to catch up. In the classroom, nobody dared to speak with Seto – until Joey and his friends entered, that was.

"Hi Kaiba," Yugi said friendly.

Seto just glared at him.

"Friendly as always, I see," Tristan sighed.

"How would **you** like it if you'd be pointed at as soon as you enter the school grounds?" Tea whispered, scolding.

Tristan got a tinge of redness that came from glee around his nose as he started to imagine it. "I'd be in seventh heaven…" he sighed. Tea just covered her eyes with one hand, wishing she hadn't asked.

"How's business going?" Ryou asked in an attempt to start a friendly conversation.

Seto found this a bit irritating. Before he had allowed Joey to move in, nobody had ever spoken to him, and now they were trying to have small talk! "Don't you read any newspaper?" he snapped.

This earned him primarily glares from the others, even Joey. **Especially** Joey. He hadn't expected him to be as "friendly" as he was with him back at the mansion, but he also hadn't expected him to be quite so touchy. Secondarily, though, a ghostly form separated itself from Ryou and assembled a solid shape a moment later. Bakura's red eyes gleamed angrily as he hissed:

"Watch it, Kaiba, or I'll make you regret it!"

"Since when do you stand up for him?" Seto retorted.

The others just sighed; of course, because Seto didn't hang out with them very often, he wasn't in the picture: it had turned out that Bakura loved his Hikari, and ever since that was apparent, nobody had bullied Ryou anymore. Bakura's wrath was feared by all of them, therefore they did their best not to annoy him. However, the CEO didn't know all of this.

"Let's just say that whoever does anything to him gets a piece of me. Now, how about a nice answer?" Bakura asked with a wicked grin as he ran his thumb along the blade of the dagger he always carried with him.

Seto's eyes darted from the weapon back to the ancient thief's face before he reluctantly complied: "Fine."

"What question was that the answer to?" Bakura asked.

"Both. Now leave me alone!" Seto spat.

"Remember what I told you –" the spirit started to remind him when the teacher entered the room. The students hastily scampered to their seats and Bakura dissolved into nothingness once more.

"Welcome back, Seto Kaiba," the teacher said in acknowledgement of the new presence in the room before continuing perfectly normally with the lesson.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

The day passed by so normally that if they wouldn't already know, Joey's friends wouldn't have guessed that the blond was staying at the Kaiba mansion. Seto was avoiding them all, as usual. Joey, on the other hand, didn't want to tax the brunet's patience if he wouldn't keep a distance to him, so he hung around his friends whenever he could. When they went home, however, the two boys were joined again for the first time since going to school.

"You know that Mokuba's soccer match is this weekend, right?" Joey asked on the way to the house. The frown and the slight eye-widening was all he needed for an answer. "…You forgot, right?" he concluded.

"Yes…" Seto muttered, "It's a good thing that you reminded me, Wheeler." Joey and Mokuba had both noticed that the blond had only very rarely been called "mutt" since that Saturday morning tickle fight.

"Gee, you must really have lots to do if you forget that," Joey sighed.

"That's just the way it is. My agenda is always quite full," Seto explained.

"Don't you ever take vacation?"

"No."

Joey muttered something about "nuts" and "crazy", but didn't comment too loudly on that. Seto was perfectly fine with that, still silently glad that he had reminded him of the match he had promised Mokuba to come to.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Early in the afternoon on Saturday, Seto and Joey were at a soccer field and watching Mokuba play. Though there were some who were better than him, he was one of the more talented players. He played as a striker.

His brother and Joey had brought along a blanket to sit on. Additionally, Joey had packed a lot of food – he claimed that matches always made him very hungry. While he munched hungrily on the sandwiches he had made himself, Seto sat there as the more decent human being of them both and watched the game silently. Joey, however, was cheering at the top of lungs when his mouth wasn't too full.

"Go, Mokuba, go!" he yelled, punching the air.

"Wheeler, you yell for three," Seto commented with a theatrical sigh. He didn't mind it too much; it was just his way of striking up a conversation. And a way to give the people around them a break.

"Yeah. So? You don't yell at all."

"Like I said before: you're yelling so much that I can afford to let off it."

Joey shrugged helplessly and carried on exactly like he had done before. Seto leaned back and kept on watching the game in silence.

Almost 90 minutes later, the game was nearing its end. It was an even score, and the next goal would be the decision. Joey was fiddling nervously with the blanket and biting his lower lip with excitement. Seto was sitting completely upright, closely watching what was going on without blinking. Mokuba's team got ready, and the young Kaiba was the middle one of the striker trio – the most important position at that moment.

"Hey! Mokuba!" Joey yelled. To his own surprise, the youngster heard him and looked to where he was now no longer sitting, but standing. "You can do it! Go for it!"

And that was the point where Mokuba watched in astonishment as his older brother rose as well and added his own comment: "You can win if you really want to! I believe in you!" (1)

Mokuba beamed and waved at them, signaling his understanding. Then the referee blew his whistle, and he ran off with his fellow strikers, handling the ball just like he had been taught to do during the practice sessions. He heard the whole crowd yelling and cheering. He passed the ball to another player, then wove his way through the enemy defense line.

"Over here! To me!" he cried, waving his arms for additional attention. The ball was kicked, and it flew toward him…

"Go, Mokuba!" Joey and Seto yelled in unison.

How he did it, he didn't quite know, but in any case, Mokuba neatly took over the ball and kicked it as hard as he could. The goalie dove for it, but couldn't reach it anymore. A split second later, the referee signaled the game's end with another whistle blow. The crowd erupted into thunderous clapping and victorious cheers. The winning soccer team had a brief celebration of their victory in their own ranks, then they received high praise from the trainer. After that, the players scattered, running off to friends and relatives that were watching. Mokuba made a beeline for his brother and Joey.

"We won!" he cried when he was almost with them.

Seto and Joey hugged him at the same time.

"Well done, champ, I knew you could do it!" Joey grinned.

"I'm very proud," Seto told his little brother softly.

"Aw, Seto… it's just soccer, not an awesome match like the ones you've had in Duel Monsters…"

"But a victory nevertheless," Seto said, satisfied.

Mokuba nodded and gave in to their congratulating hug.

"Is there anything special you want to do to celebrate the victory?" Seto inquired.

"…Anything?" Mokuba asked reassuringly.

"Anything."

"Ah, I know! If it's warm enough, could we go swimming this weekend, Seto?" Mokuba asked excitedly.

Joey had to stifle a snicker as he saw the brunet pale a bit and groan: "Swimming…?!"

_'Not that. __**Anything**__ but that. He __**knows**__ I hate the pool and all the people who are there, roasting like bacon in the sun without any sunscreen…!'_ Seto thought disgustedly. (2) But it was too late: his brother had already activated the dreaded puppy-eyes.

"You said 'anything', Seto…" he reminded him with a minor pout.

"I know, but –"

"Pleeeeease?" Mokuba begged.

Seto had no other choice but to give in. "Oh, okay."

"Joey, will you come too?"

"What?!" Seto exclaimed.

His brother gave him an amused look which he would have guessed would be visible on an older teen's face, but not on that of a twelve-year-old. "Why not? He's been with us for a month tomorrow…"

"I thought you meant a **family** trip!"

"To me, he practically **is** family! What d'you say, Joey?"

The blond laughed a bit. "I wouldn't mind, but it's up to Kaiba to decide. If he doesn't agree, I won't spoil your family time."

Mokuba shot his brother a teasing yet daring glare, and Seto almost slapped himself when he replied: "Fine... You may come, Wheeler."

"Boo-ya!" Joey cheered. He loved swimming, followed by drying in the sun and maybe having an ice cream or two…

Having agreed on that, they went back to the mansion, and Seto found himself praying to Saint Peter that the weather wouldn't play along.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

_'Oh, for the love of God!'_ Seto thought, a sinking feeling spreading in his stomach. It was Tuesday evening, and they were gathered around the living room TV, watching the evening news. As usual, it tuned out with the weather forecast.

_"…and now a brief outlook on the weekend's weather! Both days look very promising with lots of sunshine as well as 91 degrees on Saturday and 86 degrees on Sunday! Seems as if Saint Pete's granting us some last sunny days before fall will be here for good…"_

"Yay! Let's go on Saturday!" Mokuba cheered.

Seto sighed. "If we must… I'll go tell my secretary to postpone all appointments for that day…" he added rather glumly before leaving.

"Doesn't Kaiba like swimming?" Joey asked with a grin after the CEO had gone.

"No. Usually, he just sits on the towels, watching over me. It's been many years since I last saw him in the water."

Joey smirked. "Time to change that…"

Mokuba laughed, then snuggled up against Joey. "Gee, I wish you could stay here forever," he mused.

The blond felt as if an invisible weight had been dropped on his shoulders. "Yeah…" he said heavily, dreading the moment he would need to leave the house. No matter how much he had rejected the idea at first, he had come to see that he felt quite at home here.

_'Heck, I think I'd even miss __**Kaiba**!'_ he thought wistfully.

"Joey?"

"Hmm?"

"Thanks again for… you know, doing what you do with Seto. It's getting more and more like it used to be," Mokuba smiled.

"I guess that's good. Man, and I used to believe that Rich Boy doesn't even have a heart…"

Mokuba just giggled in response. As a serene feeling of laziness overcame them, they just stayed there on the couch. Joey had put an arm around the youngster – quite like another brother.

By the time Seto came back, Mokuba was asleep on the couch, still nestled in Joey's one-armed hug. The blond was almost asleep himself, loosely leaning his head against Mokuba's. Seto walked around the couch to get a better look on them. Gingerly, he sat down on the little table between the couches and the TV and crossed his arms, sinking into deep thoughtfulness.

_'Wheeler… you make Mokuba so happy, I'm almost dreading the moment you'll have to go. But I can't keep you here forever, can I? And when you're gone, what'll happen then?'_

He was a bit shocked to find that he didn't have a clue concerning that matter. He tried to convince himself that he'd switch back to his normal life, but deep within him, his inner child argued that that wouldn't be possible.

_--You can't deny that he's brought back something you've been deprived of ever since you were adopted! How can you possibly think that you'd be able to leave that behind just like that?!--_

Seto looked at Joey, who was now definitely asleep as well. An almost hurt-looking frown appeared on his usually cold, stern face. Yes, Joey had brought back childhood pleasures with that easygoing attitude of his–

_'Good God, I'll miss it! I'll miss __**him**!'_ Seto realized as he bit his lip.

He watched how Joey smiled in his sleep and gently pulled Mokuba even closer. Seto remembered what his brother had said earlier that day: that Joey was practically family to him. God, he'd be heart-broken if Joey would have to go. But, Seto thought, what right did they have to keep him here? None, actually. His father still had custody of him, and it was astounding that the man hadn't done anything yet to retrieve his son. Seto remembered hearing that Joey was beaten at home – and even though he himself had had tough treatment from his stepfather, he hadn't been beaten. He had been denied many things, yes, but physical abuse? No. Guided by a will of its own, Seto sat down next to Joey, still silently watching him, the same thoughts replaying themselves in his mind.

Joey fidgeted with a little groan and let his head rest against the lean instead, though still keeping his arm around Mokuba. His whole body moved when he shifted, and so his other arm barely touched Seto's right. The brunet twitched as if electrified and stared at the blond. A nerve was twitching in the boyish face, and Seto guessed that he was having a not-so-pleasant dream. After hesitating for a moment, he gingerly nudged Joey's arm.

"Wheeler."

The boy in question slept right on, not having heard a thing. Seto nudged him again, though this time harder.

"Wheeler!"

When that second attempt failed as well, he gave him a hearty poke in the shoulder. Joey jumped and blinked sleepily.

"Huh?! What?!"

"Ssh!" Seto hissed, nodding towards Mokuba, "Let me take him to bed."

"Okay," Joey mumbled and yawned heartily.

Seto ignored that as he picked up his brother without waking the latter. As he went upstairs, the young billionaire thought how he wouldn't be able to do this too much more often – soon Mokuba would either protest this course of action or simply be too heavy, even for Seto, who was quite fit. He tucked the young teen in, then went back downstairs. Joey was still on the couch and at least halfway asleep. Seto sat down next to him again, but stared absently at the floor.

"I'll miss this place," he suddenly heard Joey mumble.

"What?" he asked, looking at him.

Joey half-opened one eye sleepily, yet Seto still saw ruefulness in it. "I know I can't stay forever – God knows how much longer. But I will miss this place… and Mokuba… hell, even **you**," he added with a sheepish grin.

Seto looked at him a second longer, then let his head rest against the lean too. "I'm surprised that your father hasn't tried to find you yet," he said, looking as if he were talking to the ceiling.

"I bet he just doesn't know where to look," Joey muttered.

"What will you do if he finds you?" Seto asked.

Joey shrugged feebly. "Dunno. I'm in for it, though, that's for sure."

"…It's that bad, then?"

"Mmh-hmm. Sometimes he even hits me with bottles."

Seto flinched at the thought. _'I never would have guessed that his domestic problems were so bad…'_ he thought, again with that heavy feeling within him.

"Kaiba?"

"What?"

"Please, don't go telling on me!" Joey whispered, looking anxious.

In response, the brunet actually smiled a bit before answering: "I won't, Wheeler. I won't."

Joey cracked a smile despite his fatigue. "Thanks a lot, Kaiba." And then he simply hugged the CEO.

Seto stared down at him at first with disgust. What was he thinking, hugging him like that?! They were **enemies**…! When his moment of shock passed, however, the anger subsided, and he actually felt pity. How many times must the blond have longed to hug somebody, to either show affection or – more importantly – receive some in return? Perhaps that was the reason why he had acted like that. In his thoughtfulness, Seto didn't realize how he actually put an arm around Joey. He was made aware of this when Joey snuggled up even closer.

"Wheeler…" he fidgeted nervously.

"Don't say anything, just… don't," came the muffled plea from where the teen's face was buried in his shirt.

That was the point where Seto Kaiba gave up. He gave up trying to push Joey away and keep a certain distance between them at all times. And it was the point where he admitted to himself that he simply **couldn't** send him away – and that he would try to keep him away from the earlier life of abuse as long as he could.

* * *

(1) Oh, please forgive me, but I just couldn't resist! I know it's disgustingly cheesy, but I'm just hopeless...

(2) Actually, that's what I think of swimming pools - I hate those places (haven't been to one all summer, in fact - I hate feeling so exposed, especially in times when looks matter a lot). Man, my friends are right when they say I'm weird...


	8. Chapter 8

Hi guys! Again, thanks for your lovely reviews, they're very appreciated! I'd like to give you a little warning: this chapter and the next one might be a little bit short, but chapter 10 will be very long (you know, the party...). Just so you know (and hopefully don't get too upset).

**Lionessmon**: I'm glad you like it this way. It's kinda unusual for me to wait for so long before bringing two characters together, so I'm relieved to see that I'm doing it pretty much okay... :) I hope I can get chapter 10 up before the weekend'll be over (hence, school starts, and then I won't have much time for this anymore), so hopefully I get a lot of reviews. ;)

**YaoiFan87**: Oooooh I'm very honored that you like this story so much! _-absolutely happy-_ I know what you mean, I've also often found stories I just couldn't stop reading, and that was often the reason why I usually went to bed at 2 AM until now... ;-))) I hope you'll keep me informed on how you like the rest of it... :)

* * *

Joey didn't spill the beans to his friends (they called him that evening again) that he'd go swimming with the Kaiba brothers, which thankfully spared Seto of answering questions he absolutely despised. On Saturday, however, he awoke with a dawning feeling of dread as he remembered what the plan was for today.

Mokuba had already packed everything he needed, making his enthusiasm all too apparent. Joey was also almost done, all ready with his new swimming gear he had bought with Mokuba a few days ago.

"Seto, hurry up!" Mokuba called as he passed his brother's bedroom and saw the brunet slowly sit up.

"We're in no hurry, Mokuba," he argued.

"Yes, we are! Otherwise the good spots will be taken!"

Seto groaned and heaved himself out of bed. It took him less than two minutes to pack everything he needed, but as he was about to leave his room, he re-considered something and went back to a drawer where he kept a few games in. He extracted a deck of cards from it – while the others were in the water, he might as well do something like play Solitaire.

Although he thought that they were there pretty early, a lot of people were already there. Seto grudgingly followed Joey and Mokuba until they had found a suitable spot.

"C'mon, Joey, let's go change!" Mokuba said, eagerly tugging at the blond's T-shirt.

"Okay, sport, I'm coming!" Joey grinned and deposited his stuff in one heap before running to the lockers behind Mokuba.

Seto just sighed and – in order to busy himself for the moment – spread out their towels before sitting tailor fashion on his own. He put on his don't-get-near-me-or-else glare to ensure his privacy. It was just as he had suspected: half-naked people everywhere, roasting like meat on a fire; bunches of noisy kids who couldn't keep control over their inflatable beach balls and, of course, a faint smell of chlorine in the air that got stronger at the water itself. Seto shuddered and couldn't wait to go home again.

"Why so grim, Seto? Hey, go change too!" Mokuba's happy voice jerked him out of his musings. The brunet looked up. There was his brother in his yellow swimming trunks, all ready to jump into the water – and next to him Joey, who was wearing swimming gear of a blue color that almost matched Seto's eyes. For a moment, the CEO just stared at him; he couldn't recall ever having seen so few clothes on the blond, who was sporting a well-built, athletic body. Not bad… For what seemed like the hundredth time, Seto felt like slapping himself. Why was he getting those weird thoughts about Joey?! It was bad enough that his mind had already started calling him "puppy", but **this**…!

"D'you just wanna sit there all day? Go on, we'll watch the stuff!" Joey urged him.

Hastily – **too** hastily, maybe – Seto rose and departed wordlessly for the changing rooms, fortunately hiding the flush of embarrassment on his face. Joey, of course, didn't notice a thing, but Mokuba wasn't outsmarted that easily; the at times frighteningly observant teen had seen exactly where his brother's eyes had lingered just before, and he grinned.

_'Interesting…'_

(A couple of minutes later…)

"There, I'm done. Satisfied?" a low voice grumbled.

"Sure! C'mon, Joey!" Mokuba said and made a dash for the pool.

Joey stood rooted to the spot and stared at Seto. The tall brunet was wearing dark green shorts, and now the tables were exchanged as Joey gaped at him. Heck, he had only rarely seen Seto with a **T-shirt** on, but **no shirt**?! Unlike the rather athletic blond, Seto was simply: slim. Slim but… attractive, nonetheless? (1)

"Stop gawking at me, mutt!" Seto hissed. He had only called Joey "mutt" once or twice in two whole weeks – totally out of character for him; but in these days, what wasn't?

"Sorry!" Joey mumbled and tried to avert his gaze, but simply couldn't. To make it worse, he knew he was blushing, though the intensity was impossible for him to define.

"Joey! Are you turning into a tree or something? C'mon!"

Mokuba had returned and was now yanking his friend's arm impatiently. Joey stumbled a bit before he finally managed to refocus his attention and followed the youngster to the water. The moment his back turned, Seto felt his own cheeks heat up. He had noticed being checked out by the other, but strangely enough, it had taken quite a while for him to initiate protest.

_'Curses! God, what's wrong with me?!'_ he wondered furiously as he sat down again, glaring a hole into the towel. He breathed deeply a few times, then looked up, a bit more relaxed than before. He watched Joey splash around in the water with Mokuba, who – as usual – strayed away from the shallow water where his brother wished he would stay. But now that the blond was with him, Seto didn't worry quite as much, remembering how his brother had been protected from the bullies and been comforted quite well by the other teen.

_'Stop thinking about him, damn it! Stop it! Stop it!'_ his mind seemed to scream. But Seto felt his heart say something different, and he knew that he could be facing a serious problem…! Snarling at himself, he grabbed his deck of cards and started playing Solitaire. Fortunately, the aura that radiated from him kept anyone from getting closer than a few feet to him, so he could play undisturbed.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

45 minutes later, the number of people had doubled for the least, and Seto was deeply frustrated. He had won almost every game before switching to "Clock", where he had lost almost every game. (2) He shot a hateful glance at the real clock, then closely observed the pool, on the lookout for his brother.

Mokuba was still in the water, and Seto was a bit surprised that he wasn't cold yet and would therefore want to take a break. Joey was still with him, and neither of them showed any signs of fatigue. Sighing, Seto stood up, covered the bags with the towels and then went to the pool. He wrinkled his nose in disgust at the strong smell of chlorine – God, he still hated that smell with a passion!

"Mokuba, don't you think you should take a break?" he asked as he stood a few feet away from the water, arms crossed demonstratively.

"Aw, but I'm having so much fun, big brother! Why don't you come in too?" Mokuba suggested cheerfully.

Seto just frowned.

"Yeah, come on in! Or d'you want me to think that you're afraid of the water, like a cat?" Joey added with a grin.

The brunet's frown increased as he felt insulted by that comment. Things were made harder by Mokuba, who had put on his most innocent and pleading look, of course including the puppy-eyes. Joey caught on the youngster's tactic and joined in, making himself look quite puppyish indeed. Seto sighed in defeat.

_'How much worse can it get?'_ he asked himself before lowering his arms. Mokuba and Joey cheered shortly before making room. Seto retreated one step before crossing the distance to the pool in a few giant strides and diving headfirst into the water. No matter how disgusting the water actually was, it was refreshing. He resurfaced, only to find Mokuba latched onto his waist and beaming, infinitely happy.

"Now we can all have fun together! Thank you, Seto!" he said quietly.

Seto shook some water from his hair before giving his brother a little pat in return. He caught Joey's eye, and the blond showed him thumbs-up. Remembering the troublesome thoughts he had had about the other earlier, Seto tried to avoid him – but that was like Mission Impossible, especially with Mokuba around.

(Twenty wet minutes later…) (A/N: Sorry, but I don't think it's essential to describe everything they did, so I took the liberty of taking a leap in time!)

"The slide, Seto! Let's go on it!"

"Only if you promise me to take a break after that, otherwise you'll catch a cold."

"Okay!"

The two brothers and Joey ambled over to the slide. It was the highest for miles around, a spiraling ride that led to a giant splash at the bottom. There even was a short section with a tunnel! (3)

"We'll go together, won't we, big brother?" Mokuba asked eagerly as they slowly ascended the densely crowded steps.

"I'd rather we wouldn't," Seto tried to reason, "It says here explicitly: _go one by one_. And besides, I don't want to hurt you…"

"You won't, you'll see! Please…!"

Seto spread his hands in defeat and was rewarded with a happy cry from Mokuba. A surprise came when it was their turn, however: no sooner had he sat down behind his brother (still feeling uneasy about this course of action) when he felt two hands grip his shoulders. He started, then whirled around to see Joey sitting behind him. This was definitely a new range of closeness… To his horror, Seto felt his cheeks heat up again. Worse yet, Joey looked perfectly normal, just as light-hearted and calm as always.

"Wheeler!" he hissed through clenched teeth.

"What?" the other asked with playful irritability, "We said we'd go together…"

"Me and Mokuba, yes!"

"Oh, let him come too, Seto!" Mokuba chimed in.

"What on earth is happening to me…?" Seto sighed as he turned back to look straight ahead. He didn't register that he had spoken aloud. Mokuba grinned widely.

"Hey, can you give us a boost?" Joey yelled to the guy standing behind them.

"Sure!"

And then they were off. Mokuba cheered with delight all the way down. Seto felt surrounded by screams: ahead of him from his brother, and behind him from Joey. One of the blond's hands never left his shoulder; and like back then with their tickle fight, Seto found that he wasn't feeling half as uncomfortable as he would have guessed to. When the wild ride was almost over, Seto gave his brother a little push, just to make sure he really wouldn't hurt him, and the next thing he knew, he splashed into the pool with Joey right behind him. Mokuba made it all too clear that he wanted to go again, but remembering what he had promised his older brother, he got out of the water, and together they went back to the towels.

"Wow, that was awesome!" Joey marveled as he gave himself a minor dry-off before letting the sun do the rest.

"I'll say! Seto, can I have some ice cream?"

"First let yourself dry a bit."

"Oh, okay," the boy sighed and lay down on his towel.

"Hey, what did you bring those cards for?" Joey asked, pointing to the deck.

"For playing, obviously," Seto told him with an arched eyebrow.

"Oh. Wanna play 'War', Mokuba?"

"Yeah!"

Seto just shook his head as he stretched out on his own towel, giving the sun a rare opportunity to shine full-blast on him. He closed his eyes and simply listened to the lively dialogue between Mokuba and Joey as they tried to rid each other of their cards. The match wasn't quite over yet (Joey was winning, miraculously) when Mokuba announced that he'd go for the promised ice cream.

"You want something too, Joey?"

"Yeah. Chocolate, if they have it!"

"Wheeler, you're not touching my cards with sticky fingers!" Seto told him reproachfully.

Mokuba shot him a quizzical look, and Joey grumbled: "Okay, in a cup, then. Sheesh…"

The young teen left, and Joey lay on his stomach, absent-mindedly fingering his stack of won cards.

"Kaiba?" he asked after a moment of silence.

"What?" the brunet asked back, his eyes closed again.

"Anything you want for your birthday?"

Seto's eyes flew open again. His birthday? Oh right, that was a little more than three weeks away… "I don't expect anything from you," he answered.

"I thought so, but I'd like to… you know, give you something. Kinda like a thanks for keeping me for so long."

"It's okay."

Joey silenced, knowing that he wouldn't hear anything else from the CEO, and so they were quite silent until Mokuba returned with the ice cream. They finished their game of War, and then Joey and the young teen went back into the water. Seto stayed behind, not able to be persuaded to come along once more. They stayed there for roughly another hour, and then they went home again, much to Seto's pleasure.

Like he had done a week ago, Seto avoided Joey all Sunday long in an attempt to sort out the clash between his heart and mind. No matter how often he went over it, he always reached the same conclusion: he must have some part within him that cared for – hell, maybe even **liked** – the blond that made him so fidgety in situations like at the pool! But he was afraid of exploring that any further, fearing the devastation of his earlier, firmly coordinated life.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

On Sunday, though, during dinner, he couldn't avoid the other. To celebrate Joey's stay at the mansion for a month, Mokuba had organized a glass of harmless fizzy stuff for himself and a glass of wine each for Seto and Joey.

"What's all this about?" the blond asked as he sat down at the table.

"You've been here for a month, and I think we had a great time, so I thought we'd celebrate a bit!" Mokuba replied with a grin. "Right, big brother?" he asked Seto pointedly.

"Whatever." Secretly, though, he agreed. They took their glasses and made a toast before emptying them. "I didn't know you drank wine, Wheeler," Seto commented.

Joey licked his lips. "Well, sometimes Dad had some wine, and when he didn't look, I tried some… and I happen to like it."

"Another glass?" Mokuba asked eagerly.

"Yeah, sure," Joey answered with a casual wave.

A servant came in and refilled Joey's glass.

"Mine too," Seto decided.

Mokuba grinned yet again, thinking that it went unnoticed. Later, though (and quite a few offered glasses later), when Joey went to the bathroom, Seto had a word with his brother.

"Don't think I'm not seeing through you, Mokuba."

"I don't know what you're talking about," the boy said with fake innocence.

Seto rolled his eyes in pretended exasperation, but smirked right thereafter. He finished his glass and strictly refused to drink another one – on the other hand, after he came back, Joey had quite a few more and therefore a noticeably wobbly pace as he dragged himself to bed. Seto just shook his head as he watched him from the foot of the stairs.

"Foolish puppy… to overdo it when there's school the next day…" He froze and looked around hastily. Whew! Mokuba wasn't anywhere near, as far as he could tell. _'Good Lord, now I'm saying it out loud!' _Seto mentally moaned and lightly laid a hand on his forehead.

Unfortunately (for him), Mokuba **was** nearby, but simply not showing himself. He was standing around the corner and had heard his brother's words. He stifled a snicker, but felt happy for the CEO.

_'It's about time,' _he thought.

* * *

(1) Don't get me wrong, folks... I mean, of course Seto's drop-dead handsome, we all know that (... _-small voice-_ don't we?). I just used this phrase to mirror some of Joey's thoughts (I just want to avoid any misunderstandings)... ;-)))

(2) My point exactly. "Clock" is one hell of a frustrating game. I used to play it all the time, but exactly because I lost so often I gave up on it. Solitaire's much better anyway! _-yay-_

(3) Back when I still went swimming occasionally, there really was a slide like that somewhere (though it wasn't long). Man, I loved that thing... _-sigh-_

Added note: Many thanks to Faeyl's Tales for pointing out a silly mistake I made (_-lol-_ I wrote "chloroform" instead of "chlorine" - damn!)...


	9. Chapter 9

Saturday came and is going by... _-groans-_ Man, I really don't wanna have to go to school. Life is really cruel sometimes. :-(

But I'm happy anyway, thanks to your reviews :)))) Many, many, many thanks indeed! You guys're making me check my emails every day now... (I've neglected doing that for quite a while, but I'm glad that I can finally turn it back into a habit of mine)

So, next one's gonna be the party... gotta go check a few last things along those lines - and I wonder, will I receive enough motivation to post it before vacation's over for good...?? _-big grin-_ ;-D

**darkgryphonmage**: Heh, I just figured that he really can't deny his brother anything... and to imagine the "pressure" of two faces with puppy-eyes on them - who couldn't resist? ;) Ah, I deliberately gave him that role - I wouldn't have been able to do this "sugar-high"-thing that I've found so often in stories, so I thought this would be a better solution.

**YaoiFan87**: _-laughs-_ Love you too for your reviews! _-bighug-_ It's great to see how happy an update can make someone - God knows I love that experience too... :)

* * *

Two weeks later, Joey was facing two problems: on one hand, he still hadn't asked Seto about the Halloween party, and on the other hand, he spent lots of time thinking hard about what to get the brunet for his birthday. He had already asked Mokuba, but the boy didn't have any ideas either; anything they came up with sounded either stupid or ridiculously cheap or totally out of question. So Joey turned to the other resort: his friends.

"Dude, how's it coming along with that party you were talking about?" Tristan asked on Wednesday (October 21st). Seto was back at work, so they didn't need to fear him overhearing them.

"I haven't asked him yet," Joey squeaked.

"What?! You should get a move on – the more you delay it, the greater the risk is that he'll say no!" Tea exclaimed.

"Do you really think he'd say yes if Joey would ask earlier?" Ryou asked in disbelief.

The brunette giggled embarrassedly and told them to forget what she had said.

"What is the deal with this whole thing, anyway?" Bakura asked as he appeared beside Ryou.

"Never heard of a Halloween party?" Joey asked.

"Yeah, but –"

"Didn't Ryou explain it to you?"

"**Yeah**, but I don't see the **point**," Bakura interrupted impatiently.

"Well, Halloween is about going trick-or-treating, getting lots of candy, and dressing up," Yugi explained, ticking the facts off his fingers.

"But looking at that in the general picture, there's no **real** point?" Yami asked, who appeared as well.

"Not quite," Tea corrected them, "It used to have a different meaning for the Celtic people."

"Exactly," Ryou added, "They believed that they chased away evil spirits by carving faces into pumpkins." (1)

His dark side snorted, but Yami nodded.

"So… this dressing-up-thing…" the Pharaoh began.

"It's gotta look scary," Tristan interjected, "I mean, people wouldn't give you as many sweets if you'd show up dressed as a fairy instead of a zombie. The scarier, the better."

"You know what you'll dress up as, then?" Yugi asked.

"A biker," Tristan told him.

Tea giggled again.

"Joey, what's wrong? Usually you'd add a comment of your own here…" Ryou said thoughtfully, noticing the blond's absent-minded gaze.

"I'm just thinking about what to get Kaiba for his birthday."

Tristan laid his hand on his friend's forehead and responded to Joey's surprised grumble: "Just checking to see if you have a fever. Why else would you consider getting Kaiba a present…?"

"Hey, I already told you that he's not so bad. He's done a lot for me, and I think I should repay him a bit. But God, he can afford anything, so what could I give him…?"

"Something personal," Tea advised him.

Suddenly, Joey snapped out of his half-daze. "I've got it!"

His friends grinned. Then Yugi broke the short silence: "Hey, Joey, d'you think we could invite a few others as well?"

"Who, for instance?"

"Well…"

Joey beamed at the suggestions. "Yeah, sure, I'll ask Rich Boy. What more can he do besides say 'no'?"

"That's the spirit!" Tristan cheered and clapped him on the back.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Joey spent many evenings until Seto's birthday with staying up late, working on the computer. Mokuba asked him why, and when he was told that it was for the brunet's present, the youngster immediately understood.

The party ordeal remained unsolved until that birthday, but Joey vowed to ask Seto on that very day. And then it was there. Time to put his two ideas to the test.

Seto woke up as usual on that day – a Sunday. He wasn't even really aware that it was his birthday, in fact. Yawning, he got up, put on some casual clothes for simply hanging around the house, then went downstairs to get some coffee. He was surprised to find the table right outside the kitchen neatly set. There was fruit, cereal, bread and jam and even a cup of black coffee! The silverware was still shiny, so it hadn't been touched yet. Before he could voice his thoughts, Mokuba and Joey popped out from behind a corner and burst into song:

"Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear Seto/Kaiba, happy birthday to you!"

Seto just stared at them.

"Sit down already!" his brother suggested cheerfully and maneuvered him to the chair at the head of the table. When the "birthday boy" still didn't move, Mokuba faked a pout and said reproachfully: "We've been up since six-thirty doing this, so I do hope that it wasn't in vain!"

"Six-thirty?!" Seto exclaimed. It was shortly after eight now…

"I'm sure the stuff's good," Joey said.

"If you think I'm going to eat all of this, I officially declare you insane," Seto told him.

Joey laughed. "No, I didn't think so. I made enough for all of us! But because it's **your** special day, **you** should have the first bite."

"Fine." Seto was beginning to feel quite uncomfortable because he was being watched so closely by the others, so he picked out something random – a piece of bread, then spread a tidbit of jam on it and had a bite. He nodded approvingly to both of them and prayed that they'd finally join in and quit staring at him.

"I think we did it," Mokuba commented.

"Yep. Dig in, champ," Joey replied, and the two of them sat down as well and enjoyed a very hearty breakfast.

Afterwards, as the maids and the servants cleaned up everything, Joey asked to have a word with Seto.

"What is it, Wheeler?"

"Look, you know that Halloween's in six days, right?"

Seto raised an eyebrow. "So?"

Joey shuffled his feet a bit. "…I was wondering if we could have a party here."

The brunet looked aghast. "A party?! And who's 'we', anyway?" he asked suspiciously.

"Yugi, Yami, Tea, Tristan, Ryou, Bakura, Serenity, Malik and Marik."

"Why them?" Seto wondered with a sigh and a moan.

"C'mon, please! We always get together for Halloween, and I figured it would be cool to party here! I already know where, too! You have a room you never use, I've seen it!" Joey begged.

"I hope you haven't promised them anything yet," Seto said.

"Well… I just said I'd try to make it happen." When Seto sighed again in exasperation, Joey added: "Hey, you don't even need to attend the party if you don't want to!"

"And what about Mokuba?"

Joey laughed out loud. "He likes the idea very much! He'll be celebrating with us!"

That meant trouble. If Mokuba knew about the plan, he probably expected him to agree. Lord knew he'd be disappointed if that expectation would be shattered. Seto gave in for his brother's sake yet again.

"Fine, do what you want. But I want you to keep whatever you and those nitwits are up to strictly under PG-13, understand?"

Joey beamed. "Sure thing!" In secret, though, he doubted that they would be able to abide by that rule – after all, didn't **all** parties get out of control after a while? (2)

Seto spent the rest of the day trying not to attract too much attention. He did that by going to his study as usual. Once there, he found that he had received emails from the ones Joey had mentioned before, all congratulating him to his birthday (though a few also contained some rather snide comments which he idly ignored). That evening, it was time for presents.

"Here, big brother. I hope you like it," Mokuba said, placing a rather flat and soft package in front of the brunet.

While he opened it, Seto thought that he was quite content with his brother thinking about him on a special day, so what use were presents? He removed the wrapping paper to find a linen long-sleeve shirt. It was black and had a nifty illustration of a Blue Eyes White Dragon on the front.

"Thank you very much, Mokuba. I wonder where you got the dragon idea from…" Seto said teasingly with a fond smile.

"I'm glad you like it!" his brother replied and hugged him. Ah, that simple yet affectionate gesture was almost better than the present itself!

"Now it's my turn!" Joey declared.

Seto was surprised. "Wheeler, I thought I had told you that I don't expect anything from you."

"Yeah, yeah, I know. Although… I bet my conscience would have killed me if I hadn't gotten you anything. So, here goes…"

He went around a corner and came back with what looked like a huge rolled-up paper. Seto stared as he unraveled it.

It was a huge poster that featured the Blue Eyes White Dragon and the Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon in all sorts of impressive poses. There were nifty color effects on it and everything.

"Well? What d'you think?" Joey asked, peeking at him from around the poster he was fitfully trying to hold up in its full glory.

"Where did you get this from?"

"I kinda browsed the web for pictures of these dragons and made a collage out of it. I added the effects myself."

"So that's what you were working on for so long!" Mokuba said, clearly very impressed with the result. Joey grinned, then cast another inquisitive look at the elder Kaiba.

"It's…" He paused, looking thoughtful. "What do you and your friends always call such things…? Ah, yes: awesome."

"You think so? Really?" Joey beamed.

Seto nodded. "What gave you the idea?"

"I sneaked a peek in your bedroom – I didn't go in, though, don't look at me like that – and then I got the idea to make you some sort of decoration for one of those walls!"

The CEO smiled as Joey rolled up the poster again, tired of holding it up. Once the blond had finished that, Seto held out his hand, offering a grateful handshake. But Joey just laughed.

"Aw, come on, Kaiba, don't be so stiff!" Then he simply used the hand to make Seto stand up, and then he gave him a short hug. It was different from the one he had given two weeks ago, but it had one thing in common with that incident: Seto didn't resist. He was a bit awkward for a moment, but then, for a precious few seconds, he returned the gesture. Mokuba felt as if his face would rip apart if he'd smile any longer like he was doing now, but he just couldn't help it – he had waited a long time to see something like this, and it was definitely better than he had imagined it. He was itching to ask Seto whether or not he had liked it – personally, the youngster didn't doubt that he had, the question was just: how much? – but he decided against it, fearing that it would provoke a bad reaction from his brother, and he didn't want to ruin the birthday, which had been an overall success.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Early on Saturday of the following week – Halloween, in other words – Seto found Joey and Mokuba outside, fiddling around with bunches of plastic decorations.

"What's all this?" he asked, crossing his arms.

"Stuff to make the house look creepy!" Joey explained with a tone that implied 'Geez it's the most obvious thing in the world!'.

"I doubt you'll scare anyone with that," Seto sighed.

"Wouldn't you be surprised! Little kids can be scared easily! Imagine the looks on their faces when they come here…!"

"They won't," Seto interrupted him, "People around here know not to come by here. I don't bother with this foolish custom of 'trick-or-treating'," he said sarcastically, making quotation marks with his fingers.

"Oh…" Joey looked crestfallen for a moment, but then he brightened again. "Well, we'll impress the others if we do a good job! Remember, they're coming over tonight."

_'Oh, I __**do**!' _Seto thought exasperatedly, _'I just hope you remember what I told you about this godforsaken party…!'_

He turned and went back into the house, letting Mokuba and Joey finish their decorating in peace. Later, when he looked out the window, he frowned: the lawn was littered with fake tombstones and bones, making it look like some weird cemetery. The windows were sporting stickers of pumpkins, bats, witches and black cats. Seto shook his head and decided to make his getaway before the party guests would arrive.

"Big brother, look! What do you think?" Mokuba's voice sounded out, making him halt. Slowly, he turned around and looked at his brother.

Mokuba was already wearing his costume. He was dressed completely in black, in a robe combined with a black hat. It was one that girls usually wore for their witches' costumes, but Seto guessed that it could pass for a sorcerer's hat every now and then. Mokuba even had what looked like a plastic wand.

"Um… looks good, brother, really," Seto said, hoping he didn't sound too lame or unimpressed.

"Thanks!" the younger Kaiba beamed, "I picked it out with Joey!"

"What's Wheeler going as, anyway?" Seto asked with a smirk. Of course, he had already pictured numerous suggestions in his mind, but in order not to insult Mokuba, he didn't voice any of them.

"Hey, Joey! C'mon and show Seto your outfit!"

"Okay!"

Seto arched his eyebrow. It couldn't be one of the things he was thinking of, otherwise the blond surely would have put up a fuss… His blue eyes widened just a bit when Joey came out from around a corner.

He was wearing a baggy shirt and battered brown pants. Straw was poking out of his sleeves and from the loose stitches around the pants' patches. On his head was an old tattered hat, from under which more straw was visible. It was obvious: Joey was a scarecrow.

Seto stifled a laugh, but couldn't resist a grin.

"Think I look funny, don't you?" Joey's voice sounded accusing, but the look in his eyes spoke a totally different language.

"Quite, yes," Seto agreed, playing right along, "Though it is well-done…"

"If only the straw wouldn't itch so much…" Joey sighed and strained against the urge to scratch himself.

The brunet snickered. "Well, when are the first ones supposed to come?"

"They said around seven."

"A bit early, don't you think?"

"No, we'll find plenty of things to do. Are you gonna show up at least once, aside from greeting them?" Joey prodded with glinting eyes.

Seto looked doubtful as he stared at a random point on a wall. "I'll think about it," he suggested for the sake of a compromise.

It seemed to satisfy Joey. "Okay!"

"Hey, Joey, I'll set you on fire!" Mokuba suddenly yelled, pretending to cast a spell with the plastic wand.

"Yikes!" Joey squeaked with amusement and streaked off, Mokuba chasing him. Seto stayed behind, shaking his head a bit but grinning all the same. Sometimes it really was hard to believe that Joey was a teenager and not a little kid… With that thought, the CEO decided to go to his study for a bit before the guests would arrive. He didn't bother picking up the few bits of straw Joey had left behind in his hasty getaway, for he figured that the floor would be littered much worse sometime later that evening.

* * *

(1) Unless my memories deceive me, that's more or less correct. Still, apologies if I'm wrong anyway.

(2) That's my experience with the few parties I've attended in my life so far... now matter how "cool" and relaxed they start out, things always went topsy-turvy after a while... ;)


	10. Chapter 10

Right then, guys... Time to publish chapter 10! I'm soooo curious to hear about how you find this... be sure to notify me! BTW, I was struck by inspiration for a later part of the story (where it gets romantic, yes) and have already written that, but to make sure that the transition won't be (too) rough, I'm still working on chapter 11... bear with me, it could take a while, depending on how much school's gonna stress me...

**kikioblack**: _-lol-_ I guess Mokuba just got carried away a bit, the little sweetie! ;-) (God, I really love that kid, he's too cute!) Heh, it'd take much more than just a fire to kill good ol' Joey :)))

**YaoiFan87**: Yup, finally! Be sure to tell me what you think, okay? _-pretty please-_

Side note: This first little part just serves the purpose to describe what everyone went as, and I like this way more than just a mere listing... that would be so listless...

* * *

Around seven, the doorbell rang, and Mokuba and Joey were there right away to open up.

"Hi guys!" they exclaimed in unison as they opened the door.

The doorstep was full of people, all of them in costumes. Nine people, nine different faces of Halloween.

"You think we can guess who everyone is?" Joey asked Mokuba with a grin.

"Let's try!" the boy agreed.

"Tristan!" Joey said, pointing at the biker among the guests.

"How did you know?" his friend asked.

"You were the only one who gave away your costume beforehand," the mummy said.

"Oh, right," Tristan muttered and entered the mansion, giving a high-five each to Mokuba and Joey.

"Ah, Bakura!" Seto's brother cheered, pointing at Ryou's darker half.

"I would have declared you blind if you hadn't noticed," the white-haired boy said as he swept inside.

"What're you supposed to be?" Joey asked, not detecting much of a costume aside from some blood (fake or real?) splattered on the shirt, even on the jeans. A gleaming knife was strapped to the black belt.

"I'm a murderous psycho," Bakura explained huffily with a roll of his eyes.

"In other words: himself," the one who was wearing a pumpkin for a head added, and the whole group burst out laughing. Bakura sulked at first, but then graced them with his usual slightly insane grin as he found that he couldn't really take that as an insult.

"Hey Yugi, what're you?" Joey asked, looking at his friend.

"Toxic waste (1)," the small boy explained, referring to the slightly glowing green paint he had smeared himself with. He had also stuck the well-known symbol for radioactivity on his front.

"Whoa, that's scary," Joey commented. The others chuckled in response – true, though it wasn't anything like a zombie, it was indeed frightening if looked at in the bigger picture.

Mokuba noticed Yami, who was a vampire. "Ooh, do you have plastic fangs?" he asked eagerly.

The Pharaoh flashed him a revealing smile, but replied all the same: "Yes, but I'll probably take them out soon. They're quite bothersome…"

Joey took his time regarding the rest of them and noticed the slightly insane look in the eyes of one of the remainders. "Marik?" he guessed.

"Took you long enough," was the sarcastic response.

"I had to guess whether you were Malik or Marik."

"Whatever." The dark side of the tomb guardian entered the house too, well-dressed as an escaped prisoner, complete with the black-white-striped outfit and broken handcuffs.

"Tea's a mummy!" Mokuba declared, pointing at the wrapped-up girl.

"These things will probably fall off later…" she sighed, plucking at the old shredded curtains she had used as bandages.

"No matter! You came dressed up, and that's what counts!" Mokuba told her brightly.

The only ones left were the three whose faces couldn't be seen. Joey checked again, thinking who hadn't been called out yet, and took another look. The one in the middle who looked like a cat with the fake ears strapped to the head wore a black mask with a matching half-veil that covered the face, but he saw the eyes.

"Sister?" he exclaimed happily.

"Hi brother!" she squealed excitedly and hugged him.

"Boy, it's good to see you!" Joey beamed and hugged her back.

"It's been awhile. Are you doing okay?" she asked worriedly – she had always been worried about him staying with their father when their parents' ways had split.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Come on in."

She complied, and that left only two more.

"One of them has gotta be Ryou…" Mokuba muttered as he did a short selective game before pointing to the ghost. "You?"

"Correct," the muffled voice came, its softness right away indicating that it was indeed Ryou. The holes in the sheet he had used weren't that big, and the light had only helped shadow his eyes even more, otherwise he would have given himself away a while ago.

"Then that must be Malik," Joey said with a glance to the one with the pumpkin-head.

"Yes, it's me," the Egyptian replied, "I'm the Headless Horseman."

"Far out!" Joey whistled, and now the last one of them entered the house.

"So, where's it gonna be? Not that we have little choice, anyway…" Tristan asked.

"There's this big party room, we'll take you there!" Joey told him, and he and Mokuba led the way. As they passed the stairs that led to the upper floors, Seto appeared there in his usual superior pose, looking at them.

"Hey, it's Seto! Look, big brother, everyone came!" Mokuba cried, noticing him.

"Great. A bunch of people in costumes. Wheeler, remember what I told you about this party!"

"Yeah, yeah, I know, Kaiba."

"I see you forgot your costume! Or is that what one wears if pretending to be a snobby billionaire?" Bakura sneered.

Seto narrowed his eyes. "Considering that you're in **my** house now, you should choose your words more carefully, you psycho."

Bakura grinned madly. "I'll take that as a compliment, seeing that you found out what I am. And you should know that I don't care where I am when I say this and that…"

"Please behave!" Ryou hissed reproachfully, tapping his dark side impatiently on the shoulder. Bakura snorted, but silently gave in anyway. He and the brunet exchanged glares once again, then the CEO swept out of sight again.

"So much for that…" Joey muttered and led them on. When they reached the room, Bakura didn't participate in admiring the makeover the room had been through as he asked Joey:

"What was that git talking about? What did he tell you about this party?"

"He told me to keep it under PG-13 for all it's worth."

Bakura burst into laughter. "Ha! Does he honestly think that's possible?!"

"Tell ya what: I have my own doubts, but let's try to keep it the way he wants it as long as possible, okay?"

Bakura just waved his hand impatiently.

"Let's put on some music!" Tristan yelled.

"I made a CD!" Joey announced as he went to the sound system.

"It had better be good!" Malik called.

"Hell yeah!" was the response, and a moment later, music blared from the loudspeakers. Joey selected a random volume level, assuming that anyone who would be bothered would stop by to complain. Mostly, he thought about Seto in that regard.

Like all parties, things needed a bit of a warm-up, so basically everyone just did what they wanted to. Joey had a long-overdue talk with his sister; Tea was hanging around with Yami and Yugi; Tristan and Marik were having a staring contest, betting on which of them looked "tougher" (Malik observed this with interest), and Ryou and Bakura simply were making out after Bakura had flipped back the sheet from his Hikari's head. Mokuba (and this would have horrified Seto) was watching, a look that was a cross between curiosity and revulsion on his young face. After a while, Joey said:

"Let's play something!"

"Like what?" Yugi asked.

"Hide and Seek?"

"Get real!" Marik yelled.

"I'm not done yet!" Joey snarled back and added: "In the dark."

"Can you scare somebody if you find them?" Bakura asked eagerly.

"Yeah, that's the point," Joey said, "And when you find someone, you stay together."

"Anyone I happen to find must leave the scaring to **me**!" Bakura announced loudly. This declaration was acknowledged merely by a few glances and a mutter or two.

"Right then, just run off, and I'll switch out the lights sometime!" Joey told them and watched as most of them took off with a happy squeal. He waited a while, then pressed a switch that made the lights go out. A few screams sounded out, but then all was quiet. The game had begun.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

It took them quite a while to find each other, for the Kaiba mansion really was big, and although none of them really went a long ways in the dark, they had scattered well before the lights had gone out. Bakura almost scared the living daylights out of Ryou and Mokuba – **especially** Mokuba. Ryou was already used to his at times really scary dark side (minus the scaring methods), but Mokuba wasn't, and he clung to Ryou whenever the tomb robber attacked a new unfortunate victim. The last person he startled was Joey, who was leading three others. Then they made their way back to the party room and turned the music back on.

"That was great!" Bakura exclaimed happily, "I **like** Halloween!"

"Why am I not surprised?" Malik wondered with a grin.

"Drinks, anyone? Help yourself to anything in the fridge!" Joey said.

"Boo-ya!" Tristan cheered, and he, Marik and Bakura right away took off to the kitchen.

"We're in for it now," Yugi commented at their departure.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

When it was close to midnight, Seto paused for a moment as he leaned back in his chair. The computer screen was the only source of light in his study. He blinked a few times, then squinted at the screen. Vaguely, he wondered whether he should call it quits for today… and then he heard the dull booming. That sound and those faint vibrations that came from the bass. Seto sighed. He was glad that he owned such a large piece of property – music had to be turned up **really** loud to bother any neighbors.

_'I wonder what they're up to… I might as well go and see. We'll see if you obeyed my orders like you did last time, Wheeler…' _he thought as he got up, shut his laptop down and then left his study. Outside the room, the booming sound was even more apparent, and with a furrowed brow Seto followed it to the "party room", as Joey had dubbed the place he was using for the celebration. When he had almost reached the door, the booming died down as the song ended, immediately followed by another one. Moving carefully, Seto peered through the door crack, dreading what would meet his eyes.

The new song sounded South American, and that was the dancing style that was acquired right now: he saw Ryou and Bakura skillfully weaving around each other, their steps being in perfect time with the rhythm. Tristan was dancing with Serenity, and Malik with Marik. Figures. Mokuba, Joey, Tea, Yugi and the Pharaoh weren't too far away, so he could even hear what they were saying:

"What kind of dance is that?" Mokuba asked.

"It's called salsa," Tea pointed out, "Very common for Latin America."

"Is it hard?"

"Not really. Shall I show you how to do it?"

"Yeah!" the boy cheered.

Tea laughed and took his hands. "Okay, now, the beat is very important. Then you go like this…" She demonstrated with the basic steps. Mokuba stuck out his tongue a bit, thus displaying his undisputed concentration as he tried to copy her moves.

"Aw, that's cute," Joey laughed.

"Can **you** do that?" Yugi asked.

Joey shrugged. "No idea. I've never tried. I usually do freestyle – just the way it comes." (2)

"Hey, this is fun!" Mokuba remarked in-between. He seemed to be really getting the hang of it.

Seto stared at them. He couldn't believe it – his brother was learning how to dance! Somehow, he wouldn't have guessed that his younger sibling would ever show any interest in that, and now look: he was even having **fun**!

"Hey Serenity, look!" Tea called. Joey's sister looked, and laughed with adornment as she saw Mokuba. "Can you take him for a while? I'll teach Joey how to do this too…"

"Sure!" Serenity agreed. Tristan wanted a little break anyway, so she gladly took over, and Mokuba continued to practice his steps with her as she helped him out a bit more.

"Tea!" Joey protested as the brunette took hold of his arm.

"You can't do freestyle all the time! Look how much fun Mokuba had!" she tried to convince him.

"Go for it, Joey!" Yugi cheered while Yami smiled encouragingly. Meanwhile, on the dance floor, the others had noticed Mokuba's progress, and Seto saw Bakura throw a compliment to the youngster, who brightened visibly at that. Then the CEO shifted his attention back to Joey and Tea. This would be interesting…

"Hey, you're quite good!" Tea remarked barely a minute later.

"Guess I'm a natural," Joey grinned. Amazingly, he had gotten the hang of it very quickly.

"Ooh, my brother's doing it too!" Serenity giggled.

"Really?" Mokuba turned and laughed when he saw the blond "scarecrow". "Wow, he's good, too!"

"Go on to him," Serenity told him, noticing that Tristan was "ready to go" again. Mokuba complied and scampered to Joey, who took the boy's hands with a laugh, and they even could do a few steps together before the song ended.

Seto smiled to himself. He knew no other word to describe that than "adorable". So not only his brother could dance, but Joey as well… To his slight mortification, a thought pierced his mind; a picture of him and Joey dancing that fiery Latin American dance… He shook his head jerkily a few times, then looked back in.

He watched as the gang danced their way through "The Wilbury Twist" and "We used to be Friends" and many more. Of course, all the while, people frequently left the room to get a drink, and as time went by (it was close to 1 am now), especially Bakura, Malik and Marik were showing strong signs of being tipsy. That didn't stop them from joining in the fun, however. And when "All Night Long" boomed from the loudspeakers, they started to really "come on to" their dancing partners. Ryou was blushing a bit as Bakura made some quite explicit movements around him, but nobody was deceived; the shy boy actually liked that. Seto watched the action that accompanied that particular song with a heated feeling. Some of those things were definitely not under PG-13 anymore, and nobody was even **trying** to make sure that Mokuba didn't see such things! He saw his brother watch for a bit, then the youngster seemed to ask Joey something, who answered with a merry laugh to which Mokuba grinned. Seto sighed and prayed that the puppy would remember his orders…

_'Oh no, here I go again!' _he cursed mentally. Why, oh why…?!

Rainbow made way for Robbie Williams with "Rock DJ". Seto leaned against the door, deep in thought. Should he ask Mokuba to leave the party right now before more things would happen that he wasn't meant to see quite yet? Or would that be unfair…?

"Hey Joey, where are you going to?" Yami asked as the blond started to walk off to the doors.

"I'm gonna go see if I can get Kaiba to show up!"

"Just don't piss him off!" Tristan advised him.

"Even if I did, what'll he do, bite my head off?" Joey asked jokingly, to which everyone laughed. Then the blond left the room. He was just about to round a corner when Seto spoke up:

"Looking for someone, Wheeler?"

Joey turned around, surprised, and when he saw the brunet standing there, only dimly visible because it was quite dark outside of the room, he smiled and sauntered back to the door.

"You, actually," he answered, "C'mon in and have some fun!"

"I don't do fun," Seto retorted.

Joey cuffed his shoulder playfully. "Oh, don't be such a square! Remember our play-fight? And at the pool? And –"

"I get the idea," Seto sighed before the other could carry on.

"Good! Then come on! Let's dance!" He tugged impatiently at the black sweater the CEO was wearing.

"I don't –" Seto started to say, but Joey had already dragged him through the door.

It was remarkable how Seto's appearance was noticed right away by everyone. Those who were dancing faltered for a moment, and everyone looked surprised.

"Big brother! You came!" Mokuba exclaimed happily.

"He was –" Right outside the door, Joey wanted to say, but a glare from Seto shut him up.

"What a surprise it is to see you here," Tea commented. Seto just huffed and looked away. Serenity came dancing over, and she beamed at him as she said:

"By the way, I want to thank you for allowing my brother to stay with you! Everyone said there was no way you'd ever do that for anyone, but I'm glad you decided otherwise!"

"Whatever…" Seto muttered, shrugging curtly.

"Lighten up, Kaiba! This is a party, there's no room for bad moods here!" Joey took him by the arm and led him some ways out onto the dance floor. The others who were there resumed dancing in order not to make Seto feel entirely out of place or like an animal in a zoo. The brunet stood there, unmoving, and watched as Joey started to move in time with the music, making use of his afore-mentioned freestyle.

"C'mon, why don't you just let yourself go for once?" Joey asked, never quite stopping his moves.

"And make a fool of myself? No thanks," Seto replied icily.

"Oh, relax already! Look, everyone's having a good time; you won't make a fool of yourself if you just play right along!" Malik advised him as he and Marik went spinning past the two.

For a moment, Joey could have sworn that Seto was pouting, but then the blue-eyed teen finally was convinced: "Oh, fine, if it will shut you up…" And then he really started dancing too.

_'For a guy who doesn't do much aside from work, he dances darn well,'_ Joey thought as he watched him.

"You're pretty good, Kaiba," he said, voicing his thoughts.

"I could say the same about you," Seto replied, "I never would've guessed that you can dance salsa…"

"You saw that?!" Joey asked faintly and blushed a bit.

"Yes. You and Mokuba, you both surprised me there."

"Gee…" Joey laughed a bit nervously and scratched the back of his head.

Meanwhile, Bakura had just gone to the kitchen to get himself a drink. As he sauntered past Mokuba, he remembered something.

"Hey kid," he said, turning to the younger Kaiba, "Is there any chance that I might get to scare someone again?"

Mokuba grinned. "All in the Halloween spirit, aren't you?"

"Hell yeah! It's the perfect holiday for me!" the tomb robber replied with his trademark evil grin.

"Hey, I have an idea! Tell me what you think…" He beckoned for Bakura to come closer and whispered his suggestion into the spirit's ear. To Tea, Yugi and Yami, who were standing close by, it was a bit creepy to watch the thief's facial expression go from confused to utterly delighted – after all, usually things that grossed others out or were otherwise peculiar were exactly what delighted him…

"Hey, that rocks!" he remarked, "I'll go ask!"

He went over to where Joey and Seto were talking, whilst trying not to get run over by Malik, Marik, Serenity and Tristan.

"Hey, Blondie!"

Joey spun around, frowning. "What the hell did you just call me?"

"Don't sweat it," Bakura told him dismissively, "Listen, Kaiba's brother had a good idea, and I think we ought to do it!"

"An idea? Like what?" Seto asked, suspicious.

"A game!" Bakura explained it to them.

"Good grief…" Seto sighed afterwards.

"I think it's great! Yeah, let's do it!" Joey agreed eagerly before bounding to the stereo to turn off the music and thus gain everyone's attention. "Hey guys, how about another game? Bakura says that Mokuba had a great idea, it's this: we'll play tag, **but**," he said loudly before Marik could make another comment like he had before, "all the lights will be turned out, and the one who's 'it' is blindfolded!" (3)

A ripple of excitement swept through the room, and he heard a few of them go: "Ooh!"

"So, who's in favor of doing it?"

Basically, nobody disagreed, though it was impossible to tell whether Seto's silence meant that he agreed or not.

"Who's 'it' first?" Malik called.

"Dunno…"

"Hey, Pharaoh, make yourself useful and have the first go!" Marik suggested.

"Me?!" Yami asked, looking a bit taken aback.

"Yeah!" they cheered.

He sighed. "I guess I can't say no…"

Mokuba brought him a piece of black silk fabric he had used to hang on the walls, and then Yugi's darker half blindfolded himself, frowning as he heard Bakura and Marik snigger gleefully.

"Happy hunting, I'd say!" Joey announced the start of the game, and a second later, he turned off the lights.

Yami heard the scuffling sounds of shoes against the floor as the others scattered in utter darkness. He swallowed, concentrating on the game, then he held out his hands like a blind man and stumbled off in search of someone. Anyone.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Half an hour later, they were still at it and nowhere near getting tired of it. The silk cloth was exchanged quite often – because it was so dark, it was almost impossible to avoid the one who was 'it', and quite often it just so happened to be someone you randomly bumped into.

Joey edged along the wall, taking care not to make a noise. The game made him feel almost giddy with excitement, though he didn't wish to be 'it' again. Suddenly, he bumped into someone, and that someone roughly grabbed his wrist, making him give a wince of pain.

"Wheeler?" a familiar voice asked quietly. It was too dark to even make out a silhouette. All that was left for orientation were noises and physical contact.

"Kaiba?"

"I sure hope you're not 'it'…"

"I'm not; I'm kinda trying not to get caught…"

"Good, so am I. Come on!"

Joey felt a tug at his wrist; not a rough one, but rather softly demanding. He stumbled after the CEO, and his sneakers squeaked on the floor.

"Take them off!" he heard the brunet hiss.

"Alright, alright…" he mumbled and shakily rid himself of his shoes. All the while, Seto kept on holding his wrist as if for support. No sooner had he taken off the shoes when he was being pulled again, making him feel like a child with his mother at an amusement park.

A thump sounded out from nearby, and a muttered tirade of curses told them that Bakura had most likely stumbled over something – most probably one of Joey's abandoned shoes.

"By Ra, how much longer do I have to be 'it'? Where did they all go to…?!" they heard him hiss. The last time he had been 'it', they had heard someone scream, and judging by the evil cackle that had followed, he had successfully scared somebody. But his momentary frustration suggested that he hadn't found anyone for quite a while now.

"Freeze!" Seto's advice was given in a whisper that even Joey barely heard. The blond complied right away, though for reasons he couldn't quite explain, he grabbed Seto's hand in the same moment. Like two statues, they stood there in the dark, listening attentively, both thinking that the excited pounding of their hearts would give them away. They even held their breaths for good measure. When all was totally silent, they could hear Bakura breathing; the spirit came closer and closer as he groped through the blackness. He would find them any moment… But no touch came to be, and they both heard the faint rustling of the thief's clothes as he walked right past them, his hands coincidentally leaving the wall. If the lights had been on, it would have looked quite amusing. Seto and Joey remained unmoving where they were until Bakura's breathing couldn't be heard anymore. Then they finally exhaled.

"That was cl- mmpf!" Joey protested fruitlessly as Seto's other hand clamped itself over his mouth. Once more, the brunet guided him as they slowly inched their way along the wall. Then Joey felt some soft fabric lay itself against him before Seto lowered his hand again. He also felt slight dismay at the fact that the other's warmth was gone from his face.

"Where are we?" he muttered, keeping his voice as low as possible.

"Behind the curtains," was the equally quiet response.

"You really don't wanna get caught, right?"

"Exactly. Now shush, or he'll find us!"

Joey had half-expected to hear another request like 'Let go of my hand!' or something, but nothing of the sort was heard from Seto. Instead, he thought, it felt as if Seto was holding it even tighter. Like reacting on some instinct, he inched a tiny step closer to him – now they were so close that he could ever so lightly lean against the taller boy. With a small sigh, he closed his eyes; since it didn't matter anyway because it was dark all around, what was the use of keeping them open?

Meanwhile, Seto was feeling completely warm and undeniably satisfied. It was the same feeling like the one he had had after the play-fight with the blond and after the hug on his birthday. It was as if the voice of the part within him that cared for Joey had seized its chance to speak up. And because he had found out that he actually enjoyed this little game – particularly since he had bumped into Joey – he didn't protest against it. Gradually, the two boys got caught up in the moment, taking no more notice of the game…

Gently, he pulled Joey closer to him. He felt the other take a deep breath, then relax completely. Seto smiled to himself. _'So, you like this, then…'_ Softly, he ran his thumb across the blond's knuckles. For a moment, he even imagined kissing him; the thought appeared quite exciting to him – there was some thrill in the darkness that surrounded them, making eyesight utterly useless for a change and thus forcing one to rely on other senses…

Joey felt consumed by bliss when he felt how Seto was touching him. Vaguely, he wondered what drove the brunet to such actions._ 'What if he'd like me… eh, __**Kaiba**__, liking me?! That'll be the day…'_ he thought, but enjoyed this unexpected and most certainly affectionate moment nevertheless. It simply made him feel safe and happy. He was about to respond to the gentle touches when a voice sounded out startlingly close:

"Hurry, Yugi, or he'll catch us!"

"But he can't see…"

"Indeed, but he can **hear**! Come, now!"

Joey felt the curtains shake violently as Yugi and the Pharaoh brushed against them. Suddenly, he felt the ancient spirit's hand touch him, and he yelped, startled.

"What the…?" he heard Yami exclaim.

"Joey, is that you?" Yugi's voice piped up.

"I'll get you, Pharaoh! You're very close, I can feel it…" Marik said from somewhere close by. They could all just picture him groping about wildly in the darkness, hoping to catch Yami, who had obviously fled with Yugi in tow.

"You gave us away!" Seto hissed at Yami – or at least, he aimed his voice in the general direction where he guessed that his rival was standing.

"No time for being angry, Kaiba! Quick!" Joey muttered, and now he was the one who was leading as he gripped the CEO's hand even tighter before leaving their hideout behind the curtains. They weren't a second too late, he figured, for Marik sounded even closer now.

"More victims! I'm bound to catch someone now…!"

"Not if we can't help it!" Joey said with a sudden giggle of excitement and blindly ran off into the darkness with Seto in tow.

"What are you doing?! You don't know where you're going!" Seto protested, though he sounded excited too.

Joey laughed. "I know one thing for sure: not where Marik is! Anywhere else, just not there!"

Minor pandemonium erupted as the former quietness of the room was disrupted with a loud scuffle as people darted around in the darkness, either scared away from their hiding places by others or running from Marik himself. A tangle of voices filled the air, too: giggling, laughter and cries of surprise along with Marik's repeated promises to catch someone.

Finally, it was Ryou who stumbled and crashed into the wall, pressing the light switch in the process. The room lit up again, and everybody froze. First, though, Seto let go of Joey's hand. Everyone's gazes swerved to Marik, who had his arms outstretched like a zombie. The person standing nearest to him was a few feet away, so he probably would have been 'it' for a while longer. Most of them had flushed cheeks due to the excitement, and particularly Joey and Mokuba looked as if they were having the time of their lives.

"…I suppose that the game's over now?" Tea asked with a smile.

The others agreed as Marik tore off the blindfold. Seto turned to Mokuba:

"Time for bed, now."

"Aw, Seto, I'm not tired!" the boy protested.

"I know, but still, it's very late, and I don't want you to get your sleeping routine all mixed up…"

"But I'm all wound up! It'll be impossible for me to go to sleep! Please, just a little longer!" Mokuba begged.

"Actually, he has a point," Serenity said, "Perhaps he should stay just a bit longer and go to bed after calming down a little."

Seto sighed, knowing that that was absolutely correct. "Alright, agreed. But promise me to calm down now, okay?"

"Yes, big brother."

"We should all calm down a little," Yami suggested.

"That was cool, though!" Tristan exclaimed gleefully.

A few people laughed in agreement, and after the music was turned on again (though this time not so loud anymore), they hung around as they let themselves calm down while having relaxed conversations with each other. Somewhere along the line, Mokuba suggested that they should take a picture to remember the event, and that was exactly what they did. He promised to send a copy to each of them, of course. 30 minutes later, Seto finally put his brother to bed, and although Mokuba still wished that he could have stayed a bit longer, he gladly kept the promise he had made to his older brother, whom he thanked to have been allowed to celebrate as well. Seto just smiled and ruffled his hair fondly before wishing him a good night's sleep and then returning to the party.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Around 3 am, the others finally went home. Some of them were a bit unsteady on their feet, but they all assured Seto and Joey that they would get home fine. So goodbyes were exchanged, and after yelling 'Get home safely!' after them once more, Joey closed the door and let out an exhausted sigh.

"Tired?" Seto asked with a little smirk.

Joey yawned a bit and stretched. "Yeah. But it was great, though, huh? Admit it!" he grinned.

Seto pretended to have a great debate with himself before answering honestly: "Alright, you got me; I admit it."

"I knew it. Just give those things a chance, I bet there's a lot more you'd like."

"Like what?"

"Ice-skating, maybe? Making a snowman… sledding…" Clearly, Joey's thoughts were very preoccupied with the upcoming winter season. During their conversation, they had walked to the staircase, and as they stood at the foot of it, Seto asked:

"Don't you want to get rid of the straw while you're still down here?"

"Oh yeah, good idea." Joey tugged at the sleeves of his shirt, and the straw came tumbling out at his wrists. He also shook his head, ridding himself of a few pieces of straw that had stuck in his hair up till now. Seto thought he looked quite funny as he even started hopping up and down on the spot to get rid of as much as he could.

"Come on, puppy, let me help you," he suggested with a laugh and made the blond stop his hopping. That would have happened anyway, for Joey stood quite still as he looked at the brunet, both brown eyebrows raised in question.

"…'**Puppy**'?" he repeated. His voice sounded like a cross between disbelief and wonder.

Seto pursed his lips for a moment. That had slipped him by accident._ 'Then again, it would have happened sooner or later… maybe it's for the better…'_ "You heard me right," he confirmed with a nod.

He would have expected Joey to get angry or at least irritated, but there was a faint yet unmistakable trace of amusement in the other boy's voice as he replied:

"How often do I have to tell you that I'm not a dog, Kaiba…"

"What makes you think that I mean it in a bad way?"

"…Because you've always meant it like that so far, maybe?" Joey suggested sarcastically, raising his shoulders rather helplessly.

Seto cracked a small smile. "Believe it or not, but times change, Wheeler… and so do certain attitudes."

"How am I supposed to understand that?" Joey asked.

The CEO shook his head. "Go to bed."

"If you help me get rid of the straw first, like you said you would."

"Fine." Seto stepped up to him and reached down into the collar of the shirt, brushing some bothersome straw off Joey's shoulders. Then he plucked out a bit more from the teen's hair. "Is that it?"

"I think so," Joey said, making some shifty movements to test whether he was straw-free. Satisfied now that the itchy feeling was gone, he yawned again and climbed the stairs, followed by Seto. Their bedrooms were on the same side of the corridor, so they still walked together awhile before they reached Joey's bedroom. The blond stopped, but hesitated as he reached for the doorknob.

"…Kaiba?" he asked softly as he turned to face the brunet again.

"What?"

"Um… remember during that game? Behind the curtains? What–?"

"Don't ask," Seto interrupted, though not sounding harsh at all.

Joey was puzzled for a moment, but then he smiled. "I kinda liked it, you know."

Seto smirked although he rather felt like smiling genuinely. "And what, per say, do you want to tell me by that? That you want me to see you off to bed?"

"That'd probably be asking too much, I guess," Joey mumbled, looking at the floor while his cheeks turned pink. However, he heard Seto say almost jokingly:

"As long as I don't have to sing you a lullaby, I might as well…"

"Seriously?!" Joey exclaimed.

"Yes. Now keep it down, or you'll wake Mokuba up! Go on," he said, making an inviting gesture to the bedroom. Grinning, Joey swept past him and proceeded to quickly change into his pajamas. Seto waited outside of the room until that was accomplished, and when Joey lay down in his bed, he entered as well.

The blond smiled at him – and it actually looked quite sweet, for he no longer looked wide awake like he had just moments ago; it was beyond clear that he was tired. Seto graced him with a small smile and sat down on the bed's edge. Joey stretched just a little bit, then he let his left hand fall right onto Seto's. Was he mistaken, or did the elder Kaiba just start ever so barely noticeably? Whatever the case, Seto ended the moment of touching just for a second as his hand reclaimed the position on top.

"Happy, puppy?" he whispered.

Tiredly, Joey nodded, still smiling. "Yeah. Thanks for allowing the party, by the way."

"Don't mention it."

Joey sighed and closed his eyes as he drifted off to sleep. While Seto watched him, he subconsciously started caressing Joey's hand, like earlier that evening behind the curtains. Thoughts whirled around in his head again, and for a change he didn't regard them with discomfort:

_'Now you've done it; now I really want to keep you. Look what you've done to me! Were you aware of doing that, or were you oblivious, as you usually are? I wish I'd know if you have this odd feeling too… if you feel the same thing that draws me to you…'_

He gave Joey's hand a gentle squeeze, to which the other boy responded by burying his face a bit more into his pillow.

"Goodnight, puppy," Seto whispered.

Joey mumbled something that sounded suspiciously like 'Mmh… 'Night…' without opening his eyes. Seto felt his cheeks heat up with a faint blush, but it wasn't one of the uncomfortable type. He stood up, let go of Joey's hand and lightly brushed a disturbing hair strand out of the other's face before leaving the bedroom to get some sleep of his own. As he started to fall asleep himself, he thought:

_'The party was a good idea after all…'_

* * *

FINALLY... I've been itching to write something like that, though it was essential to wait until now. Ah, I totally dig romance...! _-happy dreamy sigh-_ (It's like what Bryan Ferry says in one of his songs: "Love is the drug"! Although, the way my life's going right now, it's puppyshipping, to be more specific... :-D)

Oh yeah, before I forget: apologies if this chapter was too horribly long, but I just couldn't bear the thought of taking it apart. I hope this is like some kind of reward for you guys because the last two chapters were quite short...

(1) Took that idea from Calvin and Hobbes (I don't own that, BTW). Ah, such a great comic... :)))

(2) That's pretty much what I do when there's music at a party - I can't dance salsa or anything, it's much more fun to just do... something. ;-)

(3) Ooooh, I'd love to play that...! Fat chance for that, though...


	11. Chapter 11

Folks, this is a premiere: my first fic update from school! Yes, I have at least three full hours of lunch break _-argl-_ It's frustrating, but I thought I'd use part of the time to do something... "creative". ;) So, hope the wait wasn't tooooo bad, and I apologize if it was for anyone. I was just so tired from all these new things that I had neither time nor energy to get back to this earlier. But now here's a new chapter for you. Mind you, what you're about to read doesn't necessarily mean a test for their "relationship", I just wrote this for the drama and to finally bring them together soon. But see for yourselves, and don't forget to review. :)

**Lionessmon**: Nice compliment, big thanks to you! Ooh, I'm glad you liked that, 'cause I'm always afraid it might be too cheesy or something...

**YaoiFan87**: _-blushes-_ Love you too for your reviews and for reading my stuff. :))) Haha, when I read that in Calvin and Hobbes, I was laughing for quite a while! It's kind of a cool idea, though, don't you think? Aaah yes, the curtain part... man, it felt good to finally write something like that. I felt so free when I did that. ;) Yeah, Mokie probably would have been surprised - but also happy; after all, this is his brother's happiness we're talking about...

**darkgryphonmage**: Don't worry, I doubt you could ever be too ubber feminine to me. ;) Glad you liked it, BTW. Aw, don't worry, I won't kill any one of them - that'd break my heart (really!). But I might shake things up a little... _-refers to note above-_

**Ryu Fanel**: OMG thank you sooooooooooo much for the review! I've never gotten one this long before! I'm so flattered...! Man, I still can't believe that I actually wrote the characters well. I didn't really think too much about it, it just kinda... came. Yeah, I know what you mean, I've read some like that too, and I thought that was kinda weird... You know, I'm quite surprised how long I managed to "keep them apart" - I guess I've learned to restrain my desire for romance for a while (a heck of a lot of pages, in this case). I hope you'll like what I've done next, and you might even like it, considering that you're a hopeless romantic... ;) Oh yeah, one last thing: you can never write too much for me, but when it's positive, it's just super-duper! Thanks again for that lovely review!

**kikioblack**: The same goes for me, too. :)

Right then, one last notice before finally proceeding on to the chapter itself: chapter 10 is - in my opinion - one of the best I've written, but I hope you don't expect the following chapters to be just like that... I'm not a machine. I try to do my best, though...

* * *

Joey didn't awake before noon the next day. The first thought that entered his mind as he sleepily opened his eyes was:

_'Thank God it's Sunday!'_

As usual, he stretched thoroughly before lazing around for a couple minutes more. (1) Before he could truly get up, though, the door to his room opened, and in slipped Mokuba.

"Joey? Oh good, you're awake! Look!" he said happily and thrust something into the blond's hands.

"What…?" the teen started to ask, but dropped the question when he saw what his good friend had brought him: it was a picture, the picture from yesterday's party. Dimly, he was aware of Mokuba saying 'I've just downloaded it to the computer and thought I'd print out a copy for you to look at…'. A happy smile spread on his face as he regarded the photo:

On the far left side were Bakura and Ryou. The thief was flashing his usual crazy grin at the camera while he held his Hikari possessively; Ryou looked very happy with the situation. Next to them, Yugi stood in front of Tea and Yami and was holding hands with them. Tea looked a bit funny because her mummy disguise was almost completely unraveled, but the smile she always wore implied that she didn't mind that at all. (2)

On the far right side, Malik and Marik were standing close together. Malik was holding on to the chain of one of Marik's handcuffs, and the spirit had a rather cheeky look on his face as his eyes seemed to be fixated on his Hikari's face. Joey chuckled when he saw the two people next to them: Serenity and Tristan. He had learnt from her that she was actually **dating** his best friend, and he hadn't even remotely thought of protesting. Besides, they looked so happy together…

And in the middle of the picture, he saw himself along with Seto and Mokuba. The youngster was standing in front of them and had obviously tried to look a bit frightening, but all his face mirrored was pure joy. It made Joey's smile get even bigger. His pictured self was grinning broadly, as it was his trademark to do, and he had made the victory sign with one hand. His other arm was draped around Seto's shoulders. The brunet looked – how unsurprising – the stiffest of them all. His facial expression was also the most distant one, though his lips were quirked in a small Kaiba-fashion smile. The only other sign of true life in his face were his eyes, and for once, they mirrored his pleasure quite visibly. One of his hands was ruffling Mokuba's hair fondly, and the other was placed on Joey's arm as if in response to the blond's gesture. Seeing that made the teen sigh a bit.

"You like it?" Mokuba asked, closely watching his face.

"Hell yeah. Can I keep this?"

Mokuba laughed. "Sure! I'll send the others their copies too…"

"D'you have a frame or something?" Joey asked.

"You cherish it that much already?" Mokuba asked slyly, one eyebrow raised. Of course, he took immediate notice of the faint pink flush that showed on the other's cheeks.

"Um… yeah… I mean, it **was** a great party, right?"

"Totally," the kid answered with a grin, "I'll go see if we have one. Why don't you go show it to Seto?"

"I thought the study's off-limits," Joey contradicted pointedly.

"It **is**, but big brother isn't there. He's probably in the living room," Mokuba informed him before leaving the room.

Joey looked at the picture once more before getting out of bed for good. He ran his fingers through his hair in a vain attempt to sort his hairdo out just a little bit. Downstairs, he went to the living room – and sure enough, there was Seto.

The CEO was sitting on the couch, a cup of coffee on the table in front of him. His arms were crossed, as were his legs too in that somewhat feminine fashion, and his head was bowed as he was most probably contemplating something. His eyes were closed, and a few bangs hid them slightly. And as usual when he was in deep thought, a frown was plastered on his face.

Joey walked to the sofa and just watched him for a while before clearing his throat and carefully asking: "…Kaiba?"

For a second, nothing happened, but then the blue eyes snapped open, and for a moment Seto looked almost angry. But when he looked up to see who had come to disturb him, his expression reclaimed its usual neutrality.

"I see you've finally made it out of bed, Wheeler," he commented.

"Ya know, don't you think you could start calling me 'Joey' now? I think I've been around you long enough…" Joey sighed theatrically.

"Just a habit," Seto assured him, "Well, what do you want?"

"To say good morning. And to show you this," Joey answered as he sat down beside the brunet and held the photo right in front of his face. Wordlessly, Seto took the picture and regarded it. After a few moments of silence, a small smile crept onto his face. An amused chuckle he suddenly heard made him look at the other teen.

"What're you smiling about?" Joey asked curiously. Although he was by now more used to see Seto smile every now and then, he still always wanted to know what made that happen, hoping that he'd be able to use it to make him smile more – in his opinion, it suited him quite well.

Seto shrugged and replied: "If you really want to know… It just seems sort of odd to me – everything," he explained, seeing the look on Joey's face, "I mean, just a few months ago, we couldn't get within a few feet's distance of each other without getting into one big argument. And now look! Look what's happened… if anyone had told me that I'd be on a Halloween party picture standing right next to you, I would have declared that person insane." (A/N: I know, bloody complicated! Translation: Oh, the irony!)

Hearing this made Joey become thoughtful; something he definitely wasn't known for. The CEO had said all of that in a more or less emotionless voice, so it was impossible to tell whether he was happy or not about the changes Joey had brought into his life. The blond held back a sigh. He had done so many things he liked to do and had mostly just been who he was – and somehow, he had managed to coax Seto into joining him in certain activities. He wanted to tell him that his view of him had changed; for the better, undoubtedly. But something within him strained to keep him from doing so – a part of him that feared a certain reaction from Seto: rejection (in the general sense).

"Mokuba gave you this, I presume?" Seto interrupted his thoughts.

"Yeah. He said he'd go send it to the others now." After a pause, he commented randomly: "You know, we actually get along quite well now, don't you think?"

"Yes…" Seto muttered thoughtfully, staring at his coffee cup.

Joey sighed, though smiling again, and stood up. "I'll go get something to eat… that way I won't be annoying you anymore…"

Seto looked up, his brow furrowed a bit. "You're not annoying me, puppy." _'And there goes yet another thing I wouldn't have believed I'd ever say to him…!'_

"I was only kidding," Joey said with a laugh, then left the living room.

Seto smiled to himself, then looked at the picture once more before he drained the rest of the coffee from his cup. _'I should ask Mokuba for a copy of my own,'_ he thought, once again feeling quite content.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

It was amazing what one Halloween party that had gone perfectly well could do, Joey thought when the next week ended. His friends still talked a lot about it, and it was obvious that that was something they would remember for many years to come. But that wasn't all; although Seto still didn't "hang out" with them, the atmosphere between him and the former "geek patrol" was more relaxed, and they could actually have decent conversations now and then.

Joey's friends had heard from Mokuba and Joey himself that the blond was getting along quite well with the CEO, but still, they were amazed at **how** well they got along. In the middle of the week, for instance, they overheard Seto telling him that Mokuba wanted to go to the mall, but that he needed to attend a meeting and therefore couldn't accompany his brother. Joey willingly agreed to go with the boy, and that was the first time that the others heard Seto explicitly say "thank you".

"Gee, Joey, it's kinda hard to believe that you and that guy were enemies a while ago…" Tristan commented when Joey had rejoined them again.

"If I were still at war with him, I wouldn't be at his place anymore," Joey replied with a shrug, "Besides, remember what I said: he really isn't that bad of a guy once you get to know him better."

"Yes, but you sometimes seem so close… as if you're part of his family or something," Tea said, looking up from an essay she was scanning for last mistakes. (A/N: or something...! _-winkwink-_)

Joey looked away, and because the brunette didn't refocus on her work right away, she caught sight of the pink tinge on his cheeks. Her eyes got big, and it took only one look between her and the others to know that they had seen it too.

"Did I say something…?" Tea wondered idly, though she had already answered the question for herself.

"What do you mean?" Joey asked, fidgeting.

"Dude! Why are you **blushing**?" Tristan asked flat-out.

Joey mumbled something nobody understood, and his blush darkened.

"I think you touched a nerve," Yugi said quietly.

"I'll be right back…" Joey's mutter interrupted them as he stood up and left, though deliberately not walking too hastily.

"Honestly, Tristan!" Ryou exclaimed once their friend had gone.

"What?" the brunet asked.

"You dolt! Couldn't go about it a bit more sensitively, could you?" Tea asked, shaking her head a bit.

"Well, come on! He was blushing like I haven't seen it before! And we're on the topic of **Kaiba**!" Tristan tried to reason.

"You must be blind, you fool!" Bakura's voice sounded out, and a moment later he was sitting very close next to Ryou. When Tristan raised an eyebrow, the thief had the courtesy to explain: "I believe that Blondie would like to have that guy literally 'breathing down his neck', as I told him once before. Remember?"

"You don't mean…" Tristan didn't finish the sentence.

"Well, maybe it's not what **you** think, but the tendency would be logical… I mean, think about it! When have we last heard Joey say something bad about Kaiba?" Yugi told him.

"But… they used to **hate** each other…"

"Wouldn't you be happy?" Ryou asked with a frown.

"No… I mean, **yes**, I guess I would be! But it's just… kinda weird," Tristan struggled to explain.

"Why? I'm with Ryou, Malik is with Marik…" Bakura started summing up.

"You guys are… this… Yami and Hikari thing! You weren't archenemies!"

"Like **that** makes a difference," the thief retorted.

"Tristan, just chill out for now. We shouldn't draw a conclusion too hastily, so there's no use in getting upset. Just… wait and see what happens," Yugi told his friend.

"And no matter what, you'd still be his friend, right?" Tea asked pointedly.

Tristan looked at her oddly. "What kind of question is that?"

Tea had already opened her mouth to give a lengthy answer when Joey returned and hence spared them all another lecture from the brunette.

"You okay, Joey?" Ryou asked casually.

"Yeah. Hey, shall we all go to the arcade this weekend?"

The others played right along and pretended that the previous conversation hadn't taken place.

"Saturday afternoon?" Yugi suggested.

"Deal," they all said.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

In the middle of November, there came a day that Seto thought was quite normal – that was, until he came home from work that evening. He opened the door to the sound of Mokuba sobbing, and a few seconds later, his brother was upon him.

"Mokuba! What's wrong?" Seto asked, startled by this sudden amount of tears.

"Seto… they came…!"

"Who came?" the brunet asked, his senses on red alert.

"They took him…!" Mokuba cried.

"Easy now, my brother. Come, let's sit down, and then you'll tell me everything, okay?"

Sniffling, Mokuba nodded and followed him to the living room. They sat on the couch beside each other. Seto couldn't get rid of the feeling that something was missing – but what? He tried to forget that as Mokuba launched into an explanation.

_(flashback)_

_"So, what d'you want to do on your free afternoon, Joey?"_

_"Let's play something."_

_"Yay!"_

_They sauntered into the living room and had only just sat down when they heard the front door slam._

_"Is that Kaiba?" Joey wondered, blinking._

_"Impossible," Mokuba murmured, looking at the grandfather clock._

_Suddenly, a horde of policemen burst into the room. Joey jumped up and was immediately caught by two of them._

_"Hey, what the…?! Let go!" he yelled, trying to break free._

_"What is the meaning of this?" Mokuba demanded, rising as well._

_The leading officer appeared and spoke: "Joseph Wheeler, we're here to take you back to where you belong by orders of your father. And you," he said, turning to Mokuba, "you will be charged for keeping this young man away from his father without telling anyone. The county court will send word as soon as possible. Resistance is useless. Take him away, men," he said to the policemen._

_"No! Don't make me go back!" Joey cried, straining even harder._

_"Please, don't take him away!" Mokuba pleaded, but was stopped by two lieutenants. _

_"Mokuba…!"_

_The youngster broke free of his restraint and ran to the front door. Joey was being roughly pulled to a waiting police car. _

_"Joey! Don't worry, I'll help you!"_

_Time was running out, and the blond knew it, so he turned back as far as he could and yelled: "Tell Seto that I thank him for everything!"_

_Mokuba felt frozen. Joey had actually called his brother by his first name, a premiere. With eyes widened in horror, he watched how the policeman crammed Joey into the car, then it drove off, its sirens wailing and the blue lights flashing. He was gone._

_(end flashback) (3)_

When Mokuba stopped speaking, Seto felt as numb as his brother had not too long ago. They had taken Joey, taken him just like that, without any warning. So his father must have found out where his son was hiding… After two and a half months, he had found him.

"…**What** did he want you to tell me?" he asked faintly.

"He said: 'Tell Seto that I thank him for everything'," Mokuba replied, his eyes rapidly filling with tears again.

"Are you sure that's what he said?" Seto's voice still sounded distant.

"Yes, big brother. He used your first name."

Seto stared unblinkingly at the television. His former enemy, the one he had always tauntingly called "mutt" and all other sorts of insults, had used his first name, something that so few people did… Thinking about that made the pain come quite suddenly: the pain that he was gone. So **that** was what had been missing! Joey! Seto rested one elbow on his leg and shielded his eyes with his hand; he felt tears coming. That was crazy… but was it? No, it wasn't; he had actually come to appreciate – no, **enjoy** – the blond's company, and now that that had happened, the other was taken away! It wasn't fair!

"Seto?" he heard Mokuba whisper.

"Hmm?" he asked, lowering his hand.

Mokuba stared at him in silence for a short moment, then asked glumly: "You miss him too, don't you?"

Instead of answering verbally, Seto just put his arms around his brother and pulled him close. Mokuba started to weep again, and after a while, a tear escaped from Seto's eyes as well.

"Make him come back…!" Mokuba whined.

Seto's own voice shook as he replied: "I will, Mokuba. I'll do everything that I can."

"Are you saying that just because you want me to be happy? …Or are you saying that for yourself, too?"

Seto pulled back and smiled at his brother. "You were right, little brother. I admit it; I like him too."

"**Like** him?" Mokuba inquired with a broken grin before he watched a new tear run down his brother's face.

There it was again; another stab of pain._ 'No,' _Seto thought, _'Not __**like**_…'

"…Like." He knew the answer was way too delayed, but it just served the purpose of saying something.

Mokuba still had that sad, awful smile on his face as he hopped off the couch and said glumly: "I guess I'll go upstairs… maybe do homework or something…" He was strongly guessing that his brother hadn't quite told him the truth just before, but he was still fairly fazed from the afternoon's happenings and decided to calm down first and give his sibling some time before he'd bring up that particular subject again.

Seto sighed. When Mokuba was in distress, he indeed tended to do things he despised otherwise. He nodded, and once the raven-haired boy had left, he groaned a bit as he tried to calm himself down. He cursed Joey's father.

_'Why? Why couldn't you let him be? You only hurt him, anyway… you shouldn't have the right to take him back…!'_

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

The evening was a glum ordeal for the two brothers. Neither one spoke much, and they both had a very bad appetite. Mokuba tried to distract himself with video games and a bit of TV, but it was no use. A few hours after dinner, he went back downstairs instead of going to bed; he was planning to ask Seto if he'd read him a little story or something. Maybe that would help. When he arrived at the bottom of the stairs, he heard an agitated voice coming from the living room. Curious, he followed the voice. It was his brother's, and he didn't sound too happy…

"…What do you mean, I can't see him?! …Oh, really? Do you even know who you're talking to?! …Oh, but you **should**! …Why?! Because I am Seto Kaiba! I always get what I want, and I'll find a way around you, you moron!" the brunet yelled angrily, then roughly punched the button that terminated the connection. He was breathing heavily, and his eyes were blazing with rage.

"…Big brother?" Mokuba asked timidly from the doorway.

Seto looked up, and his brother knew that he was trying to look as he always did, but the anger was too fresh to subside so quickly. "Hello Mokuba," the CEO replied with a clenched voice, "Is there something wrong?"

"No, I was just about to ask a favor of you… but I guess it's a bad time. Why were you yelling like that?"

Seto took a deep breath to help him calm down faster. And miraculously, he did look calmer as he gestured to the spot beside him. "Come, Mokuba."

The boy obeyed and sat beside him, though still looking a bit shifty. Seto draped an arm around his shoulders and gave them a gentle pat as if in silent reassurance that everything was okay. Then he launched into an explanation as he answered Mokuba's question:

"I called the city prison, requesting to get in contact with Joey in some way. It was denied. Apparently there's no way of talking to him on the phone, let alone see him. I guess I just lost my patience with one of the wardens."

"So we won't be able to visit him?" Mokuba asked sadly.

Seto smiled slightly. "I'll find a way. You know I always do."

"I know," Mokuba replied and hugged his brother. "Why **can't** we go see Joey, anyway?" he asked after a while.

"I'm not sure," Seto replied as he gently ran his fingers through the kid's thick hair, "Maybe he was assigned a special treatment. I'm guessing that his father is behind all of this." He sighed, then rid his voice of his worry as he asked: "Now, what favor did you want to ask me of?"

"Oh! I was just wondering if you'd read me a story or something…"

"Then that is just what I'll do. Come, Mokuba." He stood up and guided his brother back to his room. He spent almost thirty minutes reading a story and was relieved to see that Mokuba really went to sleep; he had already feared that the youngster's worry for Joey would deny him any sleep. Seto wasn't so fortunate, however – he spent a long while laying awake in his bed, thinking about what had happened earlier in the afternoon and wishing he had been there…

* * *

(1) That's what I do, too (except when there's school)...

(2) BTW, I took a quiz on which Yu-Gi-Oh character I'd kill, and it said that I would kill Tea! It also told me my weapon of choice: a hammer. _-lol-_ I laughed my ass off, pardon my French... ;)

(3) Sorry about that, but I had planned that before I wrote the bit about the picture and everything. Apologies if it's too sappy.


	12. Chapter 12

OMG you guys are soooooooo cool! Thank you so much for reviewing! Gosh, you guys were quick o.O I really appreciate that, and I'll try to keep this going in a pace like this for as long as I can. I owe you guys big time. _-hugs everyone-_

Just so I'm not on the wrong foot with anyone... about this police business: I know they probably wouldn't do that, but I have no idea about the law and what is allowed to be done when etc, and this just the idea for "my world", so to speak. It's just sorta essential for my story... further notes about this at the end of the chapter (don't wanna hold you up for too long!).

One more thing you'll surely notice while reading: I tried to find a name for Joey's dad, but nothing sounded 'good enough' to me, so I'll just leave him nameless (for now; who knows, maybe I'll come up with an idea in time anyway)...

**darkgryphonmage**: Whew, I'm glad that you're so open! I know what you mean, whenever I read how someone kills off one of my favorite characters, I feel like I wanna scream! But don't worry, you won't hear anything like that from me :) Ah, I never thought of looking at the dad that way... interesting.

**YaoiFan87**: _-blushes-_ I know, I just couldn't hold back the drama any longer... Don't worry, I'll help him. Actually... _-checks the fic-_ ...I think I already did, more or less (in this chapter). Just a little bit more... God knows I'd hate my dad if he were like that. (Come to think of it, he pisses me off anyway, but I don't hate him.)

**Ryu Fanel**: Well, this was really the first thing that came to my mind when I thought about the drama I wanted to insert. I guess it's also because in quite a few of the fics I've read they get pissed off at each other, and then one leaves, and then they get together again... I thought this might (immense stress on "might" here!) be different. But I'm relieved to hear that this works for you too. Yeah, I figured that I'd need to maintain that "cool" attitude a bit longer, though I'll have to wait and see what you guys say on how it was in the last chapter compared to this one. I just want to speed things up a little... _-blush-_ (Oh yeah, P.S.: don't worry about talking too much, I really don't mind at all _-smile-_)

**kikioblack**: Don't worry, I'll set him free. _-gives a shoulder pat-_

**Lionessmon**: Ah, so you say, now that I've been updating so soon... but it might be a while before I'll be able to upload a new chapter, I've used up everything I've already written in advance... Hope you'll still be around when I "come back". ;)

* * *

The morning news looked pretty much like a rerun of the previous evening's edition – meaning that they featured a small report on the arrest of Joey. A reporter had even managed to catch Joey's father for a few words, and the man said that he had found his son due to the fortune of a source. Seto was more than just unhappy with the report; the media made it look as if he had been holding Joey hostage or something! Heck, it was rather the other way around…! In the middle of the morning – he had decided to work at home rather than go to the office – the phone rang, and Seto answered it, though not feeling in the mood to speak with anyone at all.

_"Kaiba?"_ a girl's voice asked.

"Who is this?" Seto growled as he watched countless data whiz across his laptop screen.

_"It's me, Serenity Wheeler."_

Joey's sister! Immediately, Seto shifted his attention from the computer to the phone. "Oh. What is it?" He hoped that she'd understand if his voice sounded unfriendly…

_"I… I've just heard about Joey,"_ she said quietly, _"I didn't think that Dad would take such drastic measures…"_

"Why did he do that?" Seto asked flat-out. If there was anyone who could give him an answer to that question, it was most probably Serenity.

_"You know that my brother gets beaten by him, don't you?"_ she asked first. When he confirmed that, she continued: _"I can imagine what you're thinking: why would he go so far to get him back if he only hurts him anyway? Well, Joey told me that he can't really take care of himself so well, so my brother was made responsible for that. Dad can only make it for so long without Joey, that's why he always ordered him to be home by a certain time. Disobeying that would mean punishment."_

"So he basically just needed his servant back?" Seto asked in disbelief. He felt himself getting angrier at the man with every new moment.

_"I guess that's one way of putting it,"_ she agreed sadly. Her voice became pleading and desperate as she said: _"Kaiba, please, I beg you to help my brother! When I talked to him at the party, I was almost surprised to see him so happy. He likes it very much at your place, he said so himself! Will you help him?"_

Seto sighed thoughtfully. He had already decided on that – right now, he was more concerned on **how** he'd do that. Serenity misinterpreted his silence, for she added:

_"Please! I know he trusts you."_

_'After all I've done to him, even. I wonder where he got the patience from to deal with me,'_ Seto thought, but answered: "Of course I'll help him."

He made any bet that Serenity was smiling at that moment.

_"I knew you weren't as cold-hearted as everyone says you are. Thank you very much, Kaiba. It was so pleasant to see Joey so happy… God, I hardly dare to imagine how happy he'd be if he could get away from Dad for good."_

Although he didn't want to get into the mess too much, Seto couldn't stop himself from saying: "I can see why your parents are divorced."

_"I know,"_ Serenity replied rather thickly; perhaps she was fighting against tears, _"Mom just couldn't stand it anymore. Alas, I still wish she had taken Joey too when she left Dad – look what he got himself into…!"_

_'You were on the fortunate end, then,'_ Seto thought. "Listen, I'm working on what I want to do about your brother. I will help him, for sure."

_"Thanks, Kaiba. Thanks again,"_ she said gratefully before excusing herself for taking up his time and hanging up.

After the call, Seto fitfully stifled an upcoming groan until it only came out as a sigh. He was totally caught up with the thought of getting Joey back; after all, who knew what his father would do to him now? Serenity had said that he was punished when he didn't get home early enough – to imagine the severity of the punishment for not coming home for two and a half months was virtually impossible.

_'I will get you back. I won't let him hurt you again, ever.'_

Of course, there also was the matter of how Joey had used his first name that "bothered" him. That was also part of what made him want to see him again – to see whether the blond would still say "Seto" or go back to "Kaiba". Personally, Seto didn't mind; he pictured it would be quite pleasant to hear someone else use his first name.

_--And, of course, you like him a lot. That would give it another meaning altogether.--_

Seto closed his eyes tightly for a moment. He had to rid himself of such thoughts for now, he needed to concentrate! One deep breath later, he had resumed his usual rapid typing. He quickly worked his way through the usual daily flood of emails, then he accessed his bank account. Tomorrow, he decided, there would be a visit he would pay – and this time, he wouldn't be rejected. (1)

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

The following day, Seto received a call each from Yugi, Tea and Mokuba. His brother used some time of his lunch break while the others had an hour to spare in-between afternoon classes. Each time, Seto assured them (though he was getting tired of repeating himself) that he would help Joey, to which they reacted mostly like Serenity. Seto left the office at his usual time, but instead of going straight home, he told his driver to stop at the prison.

People there gaped at him, and of course whispers broke out all around him the moment he entered the place. Seto built up his usual walls around him as he swept past the wardens, his gaze being the glare for which he was so widely known. He stopped only when he reached the guy who had the keys to the prison cells.

"May I help…" The man looked up, and his eyes widened a bit as his voice suddenly became faint: "…you?"

"For your sake, I hope so. I want to see Joseph Wheeler. **Now**," Seto said darkly, narrowing his blue eyes.

The man fidgeted and said: "I'm sorry, but that is not possible. Mr. Wheeler has been assigned a special treatment, and his father requested that no one may see him." (2)

"You know who I am, don't you?"

"Yes…"

"Then I suppose you know that eventually, I always get what I want. …**Well**?" he prompted the man, crossing his arms impatiently.

"I have my orders, and those I must follow, and none else."

Seto snorted as if in disgust, then reached into a pocket of his trench coat and pulled out a handful of crisp dollar bills. "I assume that you may be persuaded otherwise," he said dryly.

He saw a flare of greed in the man's eyes and instantly knew that he had won yet again. And still the warden put up a remarkable struggle as he tried to get a grip and remain loyal to his orders, but he finally lost the battle against himself and took the offered money.

"Joseph Wheeler, you say? Here," he said curtly, tossing Seto the key as he hungrily fingered the money, counting it.

Seto didn't reply as he passed the man and headed for the aisle of cells._ 'My stepfather definitely was right when he said that most people are corrupt and can be bought. Though I am surprised that the sum was so low,'_ he thought almost musingly. He slowed down a bit as he reached the first cells, looking from left to right. Most of the guys even had the mere **looks** of a criminal, so Seto wasn't surprised in the least that they were behind bars. As he went on and on, he couldn't help himself but think that Joey would be horribly out of place in here. Some of the prisoners approached the bars as the CEO walked past and yelled things after him – they sounded like men who had yet a long time to spend in those walls:

"Hey, get me the fuck outta here!"

"D'you have my key, boy?"

Seto didn't answer any one of them. Finally, when the long corridor had almost reached its end, he looked to the right once more and found what he was looking for.

The cell wasn't big, but more spacious than he had expected it to be. Still, it was a lousy excuse for a place to live in: it was dark and gloomy with a small window that let preciously little light shine in. The walls were littered with messages from previous prisoners along with Tic-Tac-Toe games and lines that counted off the days. Attached to one wall was an uncomfortable-looking cot. And lying on that, facing the wall, was Joey. (3)

Seto sighed heavily. Even without seeing the other's face, it was all too obvious that the blond was miserable. Idly, Seto wondered if he had been punished yet – and if yes, how severely.

"Wheeler!" he whispered, wrapping one of his hands around a bar.

The other teen merely stirred before moaning quietly and making a motion as if to shrink against the wall.

"Wheeler!" Seto called again. When the reaction remained the same, he took the key he had hastily dumped into one of his pockets and unlocked the cell. At the sound of the door clinking open, Joey flinched. He tried to make himself small and refused to move until he felt a hand touch his shoulder. The touch was gentle and not at all rough. Hesitatingly, he opened his amber eyes and heard a voice say softly once more:

"Joey!"

When he heard his name being called, Joey turned around carefully so he wouldn't fall off the improvised bed. His eyes widened when he saw who his visitor was. "…Kaiba!" he exclaimed in a faint voice.

Upon being recognized, Seto smiled a bit. "Hello puppy," he said. Joey thought that his voice had never sounded so soft and – what, **fond**? – before.

"What are you doing here?" he asked, sitting up and looking in awe at the open cell door. _'I thought I wasn't allowed to have any visitors! Did Dad change his mind?!'_

"Visiting you. Although I'd prefer to get you out of here right now…" Seto replied.

'_Whoa, now he's even sounding wistful! Suppose he misses me…?'_ But an instant later he found himself unable to think about such things anymore. His misery made way for the feelings of bliss and relief. Seto had come here only to see him! If that didn't mean that he cared at least a bit, what did? "God, Kaiba, I'm so glad you're here!" he said and was slightly dismayed to find that his voice sounded tearful.

Seto smiled as he sat down next to the blond and reached out to touch Joey's hands, but then he saw something that made him take back everything he had thought about how it wasn't half as bad as he guessed it would be: Joey's hands were handcuffed. The other prisoners hadn't been handcuffed, and he remembered what the warden had said: _"Mr. Wheeler has been assigned a special treatment…"_ (4)

Joey noticed where the brunet's gaze had frozen and explained with a trace of fake, shaky laughter: "Dad's idea. He wants to be absolutely sure that I won't be able to try and get away."

"That bastard!" Seto hissed angrily.

"Kaiba, do you really care about this? Is that why you're… well, so angry at my Dad?" _'And is that why your voice sounds so different?'_

"First, why don't you call me Seto like I heard that you did before the police drove off with you?"

There was no need whatsoever to question where he had gotten **that** information from. "…I'm really allowed to?"

"Yes."

"O-Okay… but now **you** must answer **my** question: Do you really care?"

The CEO sighed and laid a hand on Joey's shoulder. "How can you think I wouldn't care at least a **bit** after having you at my house for over two months?"

"I dunno… you know, I always thought you were cold and heartless – and hence not caring," Joey admitted timidly.

"What do you want to hear from me?" Seto asked, and Joey wasn't sure if had only imagined to see a spark of hurt in the cerulean eyes.

"Just a simple answer to my question," Joey told him. Right away, he felt a bit nervous as he wondered what the response would be.

'_It's now or never,'_ Seto thought and finally lightly laid his arms around the blond. He believed to almost feel Joey's shock. "I do care, puppy, I do. Did you really think I'd have gone this far if I wouldn't care? If there's anything I want you to believe me, then this."

Joey cursed the handcuffs that disabled him from hugging the brunet back. He cared, he really did! Just as he had secretly been hoping for! Recently, Joey had begun to notice just **how** much he liked being around the other teen. In some ways, he was becoming like Mokuba; when school was out and he was home before Seto, he'd be waiting with anticipation for the latter's return.

_--Just like you enjoyed going swimming with him… and the play-fight… and the swings…-- _his mind told him with an imaginary grin.

Joey felt like crying and laughing at the same time. The first emotion won, though, as he felt his eyes become wet. He hadn't cried in front of Seto so far and was worried that he'd be pushed away for showing such "weakness", as he knew Seto considered any tears besides Mokuba's to be exactly that. His shoulders began to shake, and his body trembled all over.

"What's wrong, puppy?" he heard Seto whisper.

"I'm just… glad that you care after all. Thank God I'm not just a nuisance to you! But it kinda makes me miss you and Mokuba even more…!" He did his best to snuggle up more against the taller boy and added desperately: "Seto, I wanna go home!"

"Home… home as like: where I live?"

"Yes!"

Seto gently entwined one of his hands in Joey's hair and murmured: "As soon as possible, puppy, I promise."

For a while, they just sat there: Joey enjoying the embrace he would never have dared to believe he'd get from the formerly cold CEO, and Seto in turn just concentrated on the moment of holding Joey. He had a feeling that the blond wouldn't consider him "weird" or whatever – but he longed for confirmation anyhow.

"Puppy… Joey?"

"Hmm?"

"You know, ever since that party of yours – no; before that, in fact – I've come to see that I don't mind your company anymore. I even cherish it, you might say. Tell me, how do you feel about that?"

"The same," Joey answered simply, and he smiled as he continued: "Especially during that game at the party… when you held me like that…"

'_So I wasn't mistaken! If there is a God, then thank Him!'_ Seto thought gratefully. He wanted to treat Joey, so he held him a bit closer and started to affectionately fiddle with his hair. Joey leaned heavily against his shoulder, and Seto felt every breath he took. When he was absolutely sure that what he was doing was appreciated, Seto even nuzzled Joey very lightly, a quite cat-like thing to do. Joey shifted against him, and the next thing the brunet knew, he felt a tingle of thrill when the other's lips brushed against his neck like a feather. The sensation of that made him want to return that favor; perhaps even a bit more…

"What do you mean, you let someone go to my boy?!" a thunderous voice suddenly yelled.

The two boys jumped, and additionally, Joey gasped.

"It's Dad!"

Seto's face darkened as he kept holding onto Joey, whose father wasn't through with ranting yet:

"That wasn't just **someone**; that was Seto Kaiba…" the warden tried to explain.

"It could have been the bloody **president** for all I care! I told you that I don't want anyone visiting him! What are you people paid for?!"

"How **did** you get past the warden, key and all?" Joey asked quietly.

"Bribery," Seto replied with a smirk.

"I guess money **can** buy you anything, after all," Joey mused.

'_Not quite…'_ Seto thought, but couldn't concentrate on his thoughts as Joey's father carried on:

"You're a disgrace! Your superior will hear from me! Now, out of my way!"

They heard him stomp down the corridor. This time, no prisoners called out to the one who invaded "their" prison.

"You should go. I'd hate to see him hurt you…" Joey urged Seto.

"I'm not afraid of him. Don't worry," was the reassuring reply.

A moment later, Joey's father came into view: a sturdy man whose body nevertheless showed definite signs of heavy drinking. His face bore an ugly scowl, and Seto wondered how Joey had managed to live with that man for so long. Right now, though, said man was also looking a bit aghast – probably because Seto was sitting closely next to Joey, and although they had broken their embrace in the meantime, their hands were almost touching. And for all they knew, they might have also had a treacherous expression on their faces…

"Who the fuck do you think you are?" the intruder snarled.

"I don't think, I **know** who I am. And so do you, I believe," Seto answered coldly.

"Look, hotshot, just because you've got a damn hell of a lot of cash, you can't just walk around the rules others made."

"Oh, really? Well, let me tell you one thing, Mr. Wheeler – one of my favorite sayings, by the way: screw the rules, I have money."

"Why you little…!"

Joey cringed a bit, as he was by now used to doing whenever his father lost his short thread of patience, but tried to reason with him anyway: "Please, Dad, leave him alone –"

"Don't you dare tell me what to do, boy!" his father snapped, not waiting for his son to finish.

"You're a revolting man, Mr. Wheeler," Seto said icily as he stood up and drew himself up to his full height so he towered over the man, "I will leave now, but this won't be the last you've seen or heard of me. Someone like you shouldn't own any rights to have custody of a child. I will do everything that I can to make sure that Joey won't have to suffer from your doings ever again. I advise you to get a good lawyer – that is, if you haven't spent all your money on alcohol, of course," he added with a sneer.

"Just get the hell out of here and shut your face, God dammit!" Joey's father yelled.

Seto just snorted and turned back to Joey once more. "I'll be back, puppy," he whispered, "You'll see."

"I owe you so much…" Joey sighed, raising his cuffed hands in a gesture of helplessness.

"Don't think about that." Because he had his back turned on Joey's father, Seto allowed himself to give Joey's shoulder one last pat before he turned to leave.

"Say hello to Mokuba from me!" Joey called after him.

Seto just nodded before he swept past the man he planned to overthrow without a single word. When he was almost at the now deserted warden's desk, he heard a whimper from Joey and a string of curses from his father. Seto thrust his hands into his pockets and balled them to fists there as he left the prison at a pace that was even more rapid than his usual one.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

That same evening, Mokuba overheard another phone call his brother made. Apparently he was establishing contact with one of the best lawyers around. Seto had only just gotten home, and Mokuba had already been worried. But now that he was back again, he patiently waited until his brother was finished with the call before approaching him.

"Big brother, where were you so long? I was worried…" he said.

"Come here, Mokuba," Seto beckoned him, and once the boy sat beside him, he answered: "I stopped by at the prison on the way home from work. I visited Joey."

Mokuba immediately perked up. "Joey?! Oh, tell me everything, Seto! How was he? Is he okay?"

"I guess it could be worse, but also better. You see, his father made sure that he's always wearing handcuffs, and I don't think I need to tell you that living in a cell is a horrible thing in itself. He says hello to you, by the way."

Mokuba's temporary happiness died at that remark. "I miss him, Seto…"

"I know you do. But if everything goes as I hope it does, he will be back soon."

"For Christmas?" Mokuba asked hopefully.

Seto smiled. That was his brother, alright; when one holiday was over, he was already awaiting the next one. And Christmas was the kid's favorite holiday, anyway.

Assuming that his brother's smile meant 'yes', Mokuba carried on: "You'll buy him a present, won't you?"

"Will **you**?" Seto shot back.

The boy laughed. "Of course I will! He's my best friend!" Suddenly he remembered something. "Oh, I almost forgot! A letter came for you…"

"From whom?" Seto asked, but Mokuba had already hurried to go get it. He was presented with a formal-looking white envelope. With his eyes narrowed a bit in suspicion, Seto opened it. Mokuba watched him curiously, but patiently waited until the elder had certainly finished reading before asking:

"What does it say? Who sent it?"

"It's from the court. That bastard who calls himself a father wants to sue us for taking Joey away from him!"

"But we saved him, basically!" Mokuba protested angrily.

"I know," Seto tried to calm him down again, "Don't think that I'll accept this just like that."

"That's why you were talking to a lawyer before, right?"

"Not quite, little brother. You are right, but there's something else I'm aiming at too. I will need to talk to Joey again, but I hope he'd assure us his support if we would try to convince the court that that man isn't suitable for looking after him."

Mokuba considered this for a moment, then tried to sum it up plus an additional thought: "You mean, like, adopt him?"

"Sort of, yes…" Seto answered carefully. A long ways down the road, he was even thinking of something else, but right now that option was far out of consideration's range.

"Wow, another brother! That'd be so cool!" Mokuba was marveling, already dreaming about God-knew-what he wanted to do with Joey.

"I'll do my best to make it happen, Mokuba, but don't get too excited. Usually, family cases take a long time to solve," Seto told him seriously.

"But didn't you say he'd be back for Christmas?"

"No, I never said that. But I'll try. Or rather: the lawyers will."

"You're the best, big brother!" Mokuba cheered.

Seto pretended to be deadpan, but actually he was glad that his brother thought so highly of him for something he did that had nothing to do with business.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Mr. Wheeler had obviously taken it very seriously that his son had received a visitor, for he ordered immediate isolation of the blond teen. When Seto tried to visit him again, they wouldn't even let him enter the building and completely ignored his tirade of protests. It was one of those rare occasions on which things didn't go his way, and it ticked him off badly. He didn't have much time to mull over that anyway, for he had been given an appointment at the court, where he made it clear that he didn't accept the charges against him.

"Could you please emphasize why you deny the acceptance of those charges, Mr. Kaiba?" the judge asked.

"Your Honor, I don't know what Mr. Wheeler told you about how he thinks I treated this whole ordeal, but I'd like to give you **my** point of view anyway. I have justified doubts that that man isn't treating his son properly, and he therefore shouldn't have custody of him."

"Please explain," the judge told him.

Seto held back a sigh. He would have to explain the whole thing, and it was very important exactly **how** he did that – it might change everything. He'd have to choose his words well, and somehow he was glad that Mokuba had school and therefore hadn't been able to come too; the youngster would probably have snapped by now, and it was a common fact that staying calm was the best thing one could do at court.

"I at first was reluctant to let Joey stay at my mansion, I can't deny that. But when I learned the reason why he was there in the first place, I brought myself to change my mind, though my reluctance didn't quite vanish. The fact is, plainly spoken, that his father beats him at home, probably even on a regular basis. I heard Joey tell my brother that, and I've also spoken to his sister, who can confirm that if anybody would think that I made that up. And I believe that the law doesn't justify child abuse."

"Indeed, it doesn't, Mr. Kaiba. If that is really the case and what you say is true, then we'd have to relieve Mr. Wheeler of the rights to his son. Those rights would go to his mother."

Just then, Seto realized that Joey had never spoken about his mother. The woman clearly was alive – Serenity was with her – but why hadn't Joey mentioned her so far? There had to be a special reason for that…

"Your Honor, perhaps Joey should be taken into consideration regarding that matter."

"Would you care to elaborate that?"

'_No, not really,'_ Seto thought, '_God, I hate courts…'_ "Well, my point is that Joey hasn't talked about his mother ever since he was at my house. Personally, I think that he might have a good reason for that."

"We'll consider it. That'll be all for now, Mr. Kaiba. We'll send word if we request your presence again."

"Very well." And with that, Seto left, glad to have gotten out of the place. _'They had __**better**__ let him have a word to say about the whole thing. Why else wouldn't he talk about his mother…?'_

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

The next couple of weeks seemed like an eternity for everyone. Nerves were running high while patience waned rapidly. Mokuba managed to hold himself back for a remarkable amount of time (considering how impatient he had been before the first visit to the court), but now he couldn't stop himself from constantly asking his older brother how things were coming along. Seto was almost even crankier than he had been before, since he was suffering not only from **Mokuba's** badgering, but also from Joey's friends. So far, only Seto had been able to see him. The media still revived the ordeal from time to time, but they never saw any pictures or heard anything in any interview from their friend.

The most frustrating thing was that Joey seemed to have been denied the permission to go to court. Seto was bristling with anger, of course, but even he couldn't contact Joey's father. In the end, he was forced to put his faith in the law, like all others.

December had just been halfway through when Seto finally received word that Joey would be able to go to court – and that the CEO's presence was required as well. He stayed at work for his morning appointments, but in the afternoon he granted himself the (for his standards) amazing liberty of taking the rest of the day off. Like last time, Mokuba was at school, so he went to court on his own.

Joey was already there, and Seto immediately noticed that he had been freed from the bothersome handcuffs. And the blond was unable to conceal his joy from seeing the brunet again.

"Seto!" he exclaimed as he jumped up and threw himself at the taller boy, who caught him and held him for a moment. Court could wait just a little bit…

"Hello puppy," he whispered. _'Lord, it's good to hold him again…!'_

"Is this it?" Joey asked.

Of course, Seto understood what he was referring to. "Hopefully."

"Now then," the judge interrupted, though not sounding half as impatient as they would have guessed him to sound, "Let's get on with it, shall we? Mr. Wheeler, we've been informed by Mr. Kaiba that your father mishandles you at home. Do you confirm that?"

"Yes. But please, call me Joey. Don't address me like you do my old man…" he added in a quiet, bitter mumble.

"Why didn't you get help?"

"Because Dad threatened me every time I considered that. Usually, he only referred to more severe punishments, but when it was really bad, he even threatened to kill either me, Serenity or Mom."

"In that inexcusable case, we will make sure that your father is relieved from his custody of you. That will go to your mother –"

"**No**!" Joey yelled, but right away covered his mouth, a bit abashed at his outburst.

"I beg your pardon?" the judge asked sternly.

"Joey…?" Seto muttered, raising an eyebrow.

The other teen swallowed and explained in a quiet, but firm voice: "I don't want to have to go to Mom. I haven't forgiven her for leaving us just like that and taking Serenity from me without even letting me say goodbye. I'd rather go to an orphanage than back to… her," he finally finished after fighting back the urge of calling her an awful name.

"Mr. Kaiba…" the judge said, and Seto understood why he had wanted him to be here too. _'Perfect.'_

"Your Honor, if the law agrees, I am willing to take full responsibility for Joey." _'I'd also be willing if it __**doesn't**__ agree, but you needn't know that…'_

"Seriously?! D'you mean I'd be able to… stay at your place? For real?" Joey asked with incredulous hope.

"Precisely."

"Mr. Wheeler, do you agree with this proposal?" the judge asked.

"Yes, yes!" Joey said excitedly.

"Very well, we will start filing the necessary documents right away. You will both come here once more to sign the papers, and then that will be it."

"Do I have to stay here?" Joey asked.

"Yes, but it shouldn't take too long to make the documents."

"How long?" Seto asked. He knew that he shouldn't do that, but he needed to know…!

"About three days."

'_Thank God! Mokuba, little brother, he will be home for Christmas!'_

"I guess I'll see you then," Joey said with a rueful sigh as he turned to say goodbye to the brunet.

"Yes, but three days aren't long, puppy. Soon, you will see me quite enough."

"I wonder about that."

"Really?" Seto asked slyly.

Joey blushed and said with a little laugh: "Never mind. See you then, Seto. And a million gazillion thanks to you!"

"It's alright, don't exaggerate…"

Joey knew that it was pointless to protest, so he instead resolved to hugging his friend once more. Seto returned the gesture, though it was with now even more reluctance that he left the other behind yet again – hopefully for the last time, he thought as he descended down the steps of the building.

* * *

First off: wow, this is definitely one of my longer chapters. But as usual, I just couldn't bring myself to cut it in half - then part of it would have been almost twice as long as the other, and that seemed to be (in my opinion) a far too unfair thing to do against you guys.

(1) Originally, I had planned for more time to pass before this part would take place, but then I had this crazy urge to speed things up a little, so there you go...

(2) Heh, that's the consequence of my dreams while I wrote this... I don't think such a "treatment" would actually be allowed, but this is my world we're talking about ;)

(3) Ah, that's probably cliché, but to me it seemed perfect for the drama I craved...

(4) Man, I'm cruel sometimes...

Back to the cop business I was talking about in my introduction above; my idea was this: (finally) Joey's dad found out where his son was staying (thanks to the source that I mentioned) and called the police. Now this is how I made him work: he just told the cops that Joey was there against his will so they'd bring him back for sure. (Yep, that's the law in my world!) But as you've just read, Seto straightened that matter out (yay, way to go! _-cheers for him-_) - you see, there's a saying: you don't get far by lying...

As you've undoubtedly noticed, I didn't want to expand the whole thing with the court. It's just some sort of side thing that ensures that Joey'll be safe from his father. I'm not that fond of all this law business, and I tend to shorten things I don't like so much. Sorry if that wasn't such a good idea... _-fidgets-_

I was constantly dreaming when I wrote this (though I didn't write what I dreamed, that would be too... ugh, nevermind) - and doing so by mostly listening to a instrumental, piano version of "In The End" by Linkin Park (sooo nice!) and "My Last Breath" by Evanescence (new fav song of mine right now - it's so beautiful yet so sad!). I owe it all to the music, my main source of inspiration... _-sigh-_


	13. Chapter 13

Finally, updated again... those were two darn busy weeks at school. _-sighs-_ But I sure wish I'd have (real) friends already... _-is missing the former class-_

Anyway, I'm surprised at how easily this chapter came from me. I guess it helps that I take my laptop with me to school every day - that way, if I get inspired, I don't lose it! ;-)

I must confess that school's not the only reason for my update delay. _-fidgets-_ I've been inspired by certain songs I've been listening to and have written a few oneshots, so I sometimes focused on finishing those before returning to this story (those oneshots were just little experiments, though).

Man, my brother would scream if he'd know what I'm doing. He walked in on me one day and saw a few of the puppyshipping pictures I found on the Internet - and boy, he freaked! Called me sick, he did, but hell, I got a laugh out of that...! _-lol-_ I think he really won't ever look at me the same again. And now I've just listened in to some of my uncle's music, and my brother was in my room too, and everytime Windows Media Player opened, he saw those pictures again, and I heard him say: "I don't want to see that, I really don't..." Got me grinning like mad ;) (ah, but enough of my silly life now!)

**Lionessmon**: I know, I'm weak when it comes to stuff like battle scenes or (like this case) things associated with the law. I usually don't aim too high with those particular aspects anyway. Thanks for the development compliment, that pleased me very much :-)

**YaoiFan87**: Yeah, I couldn't keep them apart, now, could I?! ;-))) And now he'll really be free again... :)

(Side note: I'm approaching the 100-page-point now, and I'm surprised at myself! Almost 100 pages and still no... - Oh, you'll know what I mean...)

* * *

For once, Seto was home before Mokuba was, and so the roles were switched when the boy came home from school that day.

"Hello Mokuba," Seto said when his brother entered the mansion.

"Seto?! You're already here?! But… why…?"

"I was ordered to the court today, so I decided to come home when that was over."

"What happened?"

"The judge said they'd file the papers which I'll have to go sign in three days. And then Joey can come home, here to us."

Mokuba's eyes got big. "Really? You mean… forever?!"

"Well, I don't know if he'll want to spend the rest of his life with us; it's just that he'll basically be part of the family."

Mokuba cheered vigorously. The worry for Joey that had tainted his usual cheerfulness vanished as he did a happy jump. Seto just stood still, watching him.

"He'll be home for Christmas…!"

"Yes, little brother, just like you hoped for."

Quite suddenly, the youngster's grey eyes narrowed a bit, and the laugh became a grin as he asked: "You **will** welcome him properly, won't you?"

Seto raised an eyebrow. When his brother got that look, he usually wasn't in for any good. "Meaning…?"

"Oh, come on, Seto, I know you like him! Even if you hadn't told me that yourself a few weeks ago, I'd still know!" When his brother looked slightly mortified, he explained: "I see the way you look at him. C'mon, big brother, he's been with us for quite a while, so why can't you just admit it **and** show it?"

"You've been watching us?"

"Of course. You **really** gave yourself away when we went swimming…" he added with a snigger.

Seto felt his cheeks heat up with a blush. "Mokuba!"

"Please don't get upset, okay? I'm glad that you're finally starting to regard someone else other than me as a close friend. Look how much it's changed you! I think it's just great!" he beamed.

The brunet knew that nothing he would say could change his brother's mind, therefore there was no point in denying the truth anyway. So he just shrugged and gave Mokuba's hair a minute ruffle.

"Since it will be three more days before Joey's back, you'll either have do endure my cooking or go for takeaway again," he said as he marched off to the kitchen.

"I'll survive," Mokuba told him matter-of-factly as he followed, "Or at least: I hope so. Didn't Joey teach you any tricks yet?"

"Mokuba, you sound as if we're married," Seto remarked, bemused.

"I know," was all his brother replied in a calm tone.

Seto pursed his lips and was grateful that this time, he exercised enough control over himself that he only turned slightly pink around the nose.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Of course, Mokuba couldn't resist calling Yugi and his friends to fill them in on the news. Needless to say, they were utterly relieved and glad that the problem of abuse and the question of where he would stay had been solved in one go. They told the younger Kaiba that they would come over for a visit on December 21st, the day after Joey's final release. Seto groaned when he heard about that, but knew all the same that he really couldn't deny them that little visit. Still, if only there wouldn't be that dreadful outlook of them most probably asking questions he'd rather avoid (for now)…

Three days really seemed to fly by – just like the CEO had predicted – and then the time had come. On that day, late in the afternoon, Seto went back to court. One lousy signature or two was all that stood between him entering the building and hopefully not having to come back for quite some time. Eager to get to that second option, Seto swept up the stairs and headed straight for the appointed room.

"Ah, Mr. Kaiba, you're here. Good, good," the judge said upon seeing him, receiving a nod from the teen.

Joey was standing at a desk with the lawyer Seto had hired for this case. A few sheets of paper were spread out on it. He had just been explained where he would need to sign and what that would mean. He had hardly been able to listen, however; too great was his anticipation to turn his back on all of this and go back home. Home to Mokuba and Seto. In the three days that had gone by, he had always just needed to think about the two brothers in order to get a warm feeling inside. And exactly that feeling came back full-blast or even stronger when he saw the brunet in the doorway. He guessed that he had never been happier to see Seto in all his life.

"Ready, puppy?" Seto asked softly, taking his place next to Joey.

"You bet. I just wanna get out of here."

"So do I." He turned to the lawyer, who didn't need a word to understand what his client wanted.

"This is all just like you wanted, Mr. Kaiba. Now, could you and Mr. Wheeler please sign here, here and here?" he asked of them, pointing to three different lines.

Seto took the offered pen first and drew his neat signature three times. Then Joey took over and put the scrawl that represented his name next to Seto's. When they were done, the lawyer put the papers back in order, and the judge said just for form's sake:

"Mr. Wheeler, you're free now."

"Thank you, your Honor." He bowed very shortly to the judge and the lawyer, then turned and headed for the exit. Seto copied his moves, though rather nodding instead of bowing, then he followed the blond. Together, they walked through the doors and felt like a weight had been lifted off their shoulders. Joey closed his eyes, took a deep breath and then exhaled with a satisfied sigh.

"Free at last… damn, this feels good!" he commented.

"True. Now let's go home," Seto suggested and already reached inside his jacket for his cell phone. But Joey grabbed his arm, making him stop.

"You don't need to call the car. I'd prefer walking."

"Alright."

And so they walked off. It was already darkening outside in the wintry weather, and the streetlights were even on. The crisp evening air was starting to seep through their uncovered skin and their breaths came out in white wisps, but Joey had rarely before looked happier, Seto thought as he watched the amber-eyed boy at his side from the corner of his eye. The smile spoke for itself. He was halfway through the process of zoning out when he suddenly heard Joey ask:

"Is everything alright…?"

Seto blinked, then replied reassuringly: "Yes, I was just lost in thoughts a bit."

"What kind of thoughts?" Joey asked, a grin creeping onto his face.

"I suppose you want me to be honest?"

"If you weren't, you'd freak me out," Joey joked.

Seto flashed him a semi-grin that said 'Very funny!', but answered honestly: "I'm glad that I managed to get you out of that."

"In other words: you missed me," Joey corrected him. Just when Seto started to blush a bit, he added: "You don't need to hide it. I missed you too, you know." To underline this, he nudged him gently.

It was an odd moment for Seto: he felt like smiling genuinely, but instead he found himself frowning a bit. It was the last stage of his internal struggle, the fight between the part of him that wanted to openly respond to Joey and his every touch and the part that was all too used to keeping up his cold, distant attitude that his stepfather had trained him to have at all times. He wanted to put that second part behind him for now; it would only be honest towards Joey…

"You're not mad at me, right?" Joey asked, just wanting to make absolutely sure that he hadn't come on too strong or something.

"No… it's just…" Seto's voice faltered. He lacked the energy for trying to properly explain himself, but he hoped Joey would at least understand that it wasn't his fault. "…You didn't do anything wrong," he finally added.

"Oh… okay, then. Just try to relax, hmm?" Joey quietly advised him and gingerly laid one hand on the CEO's arm. Seto gave a minor twitch, but didn't shake the other off. However, he wasn't quite comfortable with the thought of walking around like this in public… As if he had sensed the brunet's discomfort, Joey inched a bit closer until it would have been barely visible to passer-bys that they were touching. He felt Seto relax a little bit and praised himself for his previous reaction. They stayed just like that as they walked through the streets to the mansion, silent but secretly happy. When they turned into the large driveway of the Kaiba mansion, Joey even fully linked arms with the other teen, who rewarded him with a small but thankful smile.

Seto had only just reached out to open the door when it swung open as if by magic, only to reveal a happily beaming Mokuba.

"Big brother! Joey! You're home!" he exclaimed joyfully and flung his arms around Joey's waist in a rapturous welcoming hug. Joey put his arms around the boy before kneeling down a bit, adding even more intimacy to the gesture.

"I've missed you so much, Joey…!" Mokuba whispered with a sniff.

"The same goes for me, kiddo. God, it's so good to see you again!"

"Will you stay forever now?" The hope was impossible to overhear.

Joey drew back and laughed a bit. "I've lived here for a little more than two months and you already want to put up with me for the rest of your life?!"

"Yeah!"

The blond tousled the boy's black hair shortly, then replied: "We'll see. Don't get too caught up in the bigger picture yet."

Mokuba just grinned seemingly innocently at him before turning to Seto. There was something specific he wanted to ask him, but (for the sake of receiving an honest answer) preferably not when Joey was around… As if on a silent cue, Joey asked:

"I don't wanna be inconsiderate or anything, but I'm hungry! I'll go cook something, if you want…"

Mokuba praised the Lord for Joey's practically constant appetite. "Yeah, sure, that's a great idea! I've missed your cooking, and so has Seto!"

"Well, in that case I'll see what I can make you guys…" With that, Joey sauntered off to the kitchen, leaving Mokuba to round immediately on his brother:

"So, have you told him yet?"

"I don't believe it! I haven't even been home for five minutes yet, and you're already asking me something like that!" Seto sighed in fake exasperation as he took off his coat and hung it up.

"**Someone's** gotta help you with this! And just think, he might even say the same to you! No, wait; he'll **surely** say the same!"

"Mokuba…" Seto groaned, sounding a few years younger as he did that. Before he could carry on, his sibling interrupted:

"I'm just trying to help you, big brother. It would make you so happy, and then imagine! You wouldn't have to hide any feelings anymore! Think of it as an act of liberation!"

"Don't believe that I **don't** want to tell him that," Seto muttered defensively, "But I think I'm in my own way…"

"Because of Gozaburo?"

His older brother nodded. The boy brightened and said:

"You'll break through it, Seto. You always get what you want."

The brunet smiled, grateful for the youngster's support, then they both went into the kitchen, where Joey was preparing something that simply **had** to be delicious. Mokuba sat on the counter, and for once his brother didn't tell him off; they both were much too occupied with talking and laughing with Joey as they rejoiced in their reunion. (1)

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

After a highly satisfying dinner, they spent some "family time" in the living room, lazing around on the sofas with the TV running in the background (it gained their attention every now and then, but never for long). Joey was informed about how his friends planned to visit him tomorrow.

"But… don't we have school tomorrow?"

"The 21st **is** a Monday this year, but Christmas vacation has just begun," Seto told him, "So you'll be able to spend enough time with your friends."

"You mean: **we'll** be able to spend enough time with **our** friends," Joey corrected him.

Seto merely tilted his head from side to side a bit in a gesture of reconsideration as he was eyed by Joey in mocking reproach while Mokuba was giggling.

'_Sometimes they really __**do**__ act as if they were married!'_ he thought with amusement. (2) _'And now for one of my last helps for my brother to finally admit what he's been sitting on…'_

The radiant youth hopped off the couch, turned off the TV and announced: "I'll go upstairs and play some video games. I'll go to bed when I'm tired, so I'll say good-night now."

"You don't want us to play with you a bit?" Joey asked.

"No. I mean, actually, **yes**, but I bet you're pretty tired from all the excitement and could need some rest. We'll have loads of time to play together afterwards."

"If you say so," Joey replied with a shrug.

Seto wasn't fooled, not for a single moment; he had seen right through his brother. It was quite cute how much the kid tried to help them, and Seto knew him well enough to be fully aware of the fact that the boy wouldn't stop hinting until certain things had been admitted.

"In that case… goodnight, Mokuba," he said, and his tone of voice implied that he hadn't been sidetracked in the slightest. The only direct response to this was another one of his brother's grins.

"Goodnight, Seto. And you too, Joey. I hope you'll sleep well."

"Kid, there's no way in the world that I'd have a worse sleep here than in that cell," Joey told him confidently, "But thanks anyway. Goodnight to you, too."

Mokuba gave them both a hug, then departed for his bedroom. The two older teens sat in silence until they heard the door to said room close, then Joey stretched and said with a faint yawn:

"Ya know, he's right. I **am** tired."

"So tired that you already want to go to bed?" Seto inquired.

Joey shook his head. "No, I'll stay here for another while. But I'm not going to say no to a few moments of chilling out." He closed his eyes and had actually planned to just let himself sink against the softness of the couch lean, but instead he felt how a pair of arms took hold of him just before he would fall against the lean. His amber eyes snapped open again, and even as he turned his head to look around, he was being held gently, his back resting against another body as he was carefully maneuvered onto someone's lap. And of course there was only one possibility to who **that** could be.

"Seto…?" he said, sounding almost like the CEO himself had back when Joey had first hugged him.

"It's alright, puppy. I'd just like to hold you for a while," the other teen's deep voice said softly right next to his ear.

"Then hold me," Joey mumbled as he shifted a bit so he could snuggle up a bit closer. Through half-closed eyes, he regarded the slender hands that rested on his stomach; those same hands that had refused to do so much as touch him in any way almost three months ago. How much had changed since then! He felt how Seto rested his chin on his shoulder and was breathing slowly and calmly. Joey caught himself thinking about how he would just need to turn his head to the left in order to kiss the brunet's cheek. Smiling happily as he grew more tired, he laid his hands on Seto's, giving them an approving squeeze. One of the other's hands broke free and took his own. The sight of that looked simply… right.

Closing his eyes again, Joey turned his head to the left until his lips softly brushed against Seto's cheek. He didn't need eyesight to know that a blush had shot into the other's face at that touch. Giving a small, quiet laugh, he whispered:

"Remember how I did this back in jail?"

"Like I'd forget that," Seto replied in the same fashion, "And Lord knows it…" Quite suddenly, his voice failed him. _'Oh no, not __**now**!'_

"Lord knows it what?" Joey asked. He could guess what Seto wanted to say, but he wanted to hear him say it. He was curious to find out whether Seto's true self would triumph over his "cold-hearted bastard"-side.

"Lord knows it…" _'Come now, Seto, you can do it! Just say it! You could tell him anything! He won't laugh at you! Remember, it's like an act of liberation!'_

"…Lord knows it feels good," he finally sighed.

"I second that for how you're holding me," Joey murmured. It was utmost satisfaction to hear Seto say that something he did felt good – after all, it was a widely-known fact that it was not too easy to get appreciated by the CEO.

Just then, the elder Kaiba shifted and graced Joey with a soft, fleeting kiss at the corner of his mouth. "Welcome home, puppy," he said quietly.

"Home sweet home," came the faint mutter from the blond, who was now on the verge of falling asleep.

"I think now it's time for bed," Seto smiled as he slowly got up. He hesitated a bit before laying an arm around Joey's waist for support – but it was only a second's hesitation that went unnoticed by the other. As they climbed the stairs, he thought about what still remained to be said between them, that little phrase that people tended to say so quickly and inconsiderately before thinking about if they really meant it. And once again, his mind came to his aid as his considerate side spoke to him:

_--You wonder if you have the right to tell him that, don't you? Still having those doubts about yourself… Look at you! So far, **he** always was the one who made the initiating moves, and finally __**you**__ did that for a change! You've had all this time to reflect on your feelings, so you wouldn't be rushing in. Just be strong like you usually are…--_

Seto sighed ever so faintly. That was true… but he wanted to say what needed to be said when Joey was fully awake and therefore fully aware of him. After all, he had never before said those words to anyone else but Mokuba, and even that particular case was different. It was too important to screw anything up.

For the time being, he pushed those thoughts aside as he helped Joey into bed. The other boy was far sleepier than back then after the Halloween party. Like last time, Seto sat down on the bedside and watched him take the final steps toward the land of dreams. As familiar as the scene was, the atmosphere had changed, for now he knew that the attraction to one another was mutual.

"Goodnight, Joey," he whispered as he fondly touched the blond's hair.

"Yeah… 'night, Seto," came the drowsy response. Seto could tell that he was trying to look at him again, but the tiredness was too overpowering.

Seto petted one of the hair strands before letting his hand rest on Joey's cheek. It was very satisfying to watch a smile dance across the other teen's face. Not even a minute later, he was asleep. As he watched him sleep, the brunet thought about how he had said goodnight after the Halloween party – and about what had gone through his mind after having done so.

'_I wanted to keep you… and I still do so. To keep you, but in more than just the one way I was thinking of back then… But I won't ask you quite yet. First, let's just enjoy what we have. My puppy…'_

Like he had done in the living room a little while ago, he bent down and gave Joey a short kiss that ever so narrowly "missed" his lips. Then Seto quietly left the room, feeling really happy – this time without any protests from his own self. Finally, he thought, finally he was reclaiming part of his true nature, and then no one would call him an "ignorant bastard without any feelings" ever again.

* * *

Whew... got that done. Yay, finally done with the law stuff (again, apologies if it's crappy, but it was kinda essential and I really suck at writing stuff like that)! Aaaah yes, and it was with great pleasure that I wrote the last part... :))) Coming up: Xmas...

(1) Um, yeah... cheesy choice of words, I know, but it just seemed to suit the situation, so there you go.

(2) I dunno, I just kinda caught myself thinking "cute marriage bickering", don't ask me why... _-raises hands defensively-_

Please review and tell me what you think! I promise I'll try to update as soon as I can... (only if you want me to, of course)


	14. Chapter 14

Hi guys! Geez, I feel so guilty for taking so long with updating, but school just kept me quite busy... another reason for the delay was that I looked over the story again and found some (more or less) minor mistakes, and as usual, my desire for perfection made me reload any chapter that had flaws I noticed in them - most things should be alright now. Once an entire paragraph was missing, what a nightmare! I guess I have to be more careful when editing submitted documents... apologies to anyone who might have been confused...

As usual, I hope you'll like this chapter. It was sometimes difficult to write, though, 'cause I had the beginning and the end (but that part was just kinda like a mental image) and had to come up with something for in-between. I hope you'll tell me what you think just the way you've been doing so wonderfully so far - many many thanks to all you reviewers; you're simply great :-))))))))

**darkgryphonmage**: Yes... but you know, it's weird; because it took me so long to get to this point (for my standards), it's almost odd to write this "new" aspect... _-lol-_

**Lareske**: Yeah, they haven't yet... I'm going to start working on that part now, though ;) I still find it unbelievable that I managed to withstand that for so long... definitely a new record for me... :D

**Lionessmon**: Thanks :) I thought it was high time for something like that.

**YaoiFan87**: Tell ya what, your review had me smiling like crazy when I read it. Thank you sooooooo much for the review:) _-big hug-_ I thought that that part might be... well, troublesome, because I feared it would be way too sappy or something. But that always happens with me when cuteness occurs in my stories, I then tend to insert some "sappy/cliché stuff"... _-blush-_

**Mistress of the Shadow Heaven**: Ooh, I'm glad you like it! ;)

**Tommylover**: Wow, I'm flattered each and every time someone says they love this story - it's always a sign that I achieved more than I aimed for... :-)

**Warning**: I'm almost positive that there are certain things in this chapter that sound "mushy gushy" or whatever you call such things! Just... be warned, I can't help but use such elements when I finally get to the romantic parts... BTW, please don't kill me because of their present ideas... I had to come up with something, and if I'm not inspired, things usually turn out the way they did in this chapter...

* * *

Sleeping in a proper bed again must have felt really, really good to his body, for Joey slept until late in the morning. If he were to have breakfast now, it would almost be like having lunch just a little earlier than usual. But he didn't care about that as he got up, though only awakening slowly. Dazedly fiddling with his hair, he ambled downstairs into the kitchen. It felt like he had come back after a horrible vacation, and for a short moment he almost believed never to have lived anywhere else but here. Yawning heartily, he entered the kitchen.

Mokuba was sitting in his usual spot with his traditional cereal bowl in front of him and was watching TV. When Joey came in, the latest news on business came to an end, and no sooner had that happened when the youngster changed to the cartoon channel.

Seto was at the coffee machine and looked a little reproachfully at his brother when he heard the (in his opinion) irritating theme song of some cartoon he guessed he wouldn't bother to watch at any age; but unlike he had done during the first weekend of Joey's stay, he didn't tell Mokuba off and let him proceed instead. Shaking his head just a little bit, he turned back to the coffee machine. Suddenly, a tangle of blond hair appeared at his side, and he turned to look into a still very sleepy face.

"Well, look who's finally up," he commented with a quiet laugh.

Joey just blinked as if in incomprehension before muttering: "Thanks a lot…"

Seto smiled at him. "Don't take that seriously. Slept well?"

The blond guessed that he could accept the smile as an apology and grinned – and because he still had that sleepy look on his face, Seto thought that that looked… well, what do you call it; **cute**?

"Better than I have in weeks."

"Good. Coffee?" Seto asked. Joey nodded, and then he carried on: "Your friends said that they would come over in the afternoon."

"**Our** friends." The words had escaped him before he even knew it. Feeling the pointed look the brunet was giving him, he allowed his cheeks to turn a little pink.

Meanwhile, Mokuba had turned his head just a bit so he could watch them from the corner of his eye. _'There's something in the way they look at each other,'_ he thought as he observed their behavior and guessed that it had been a good idea to let them have some time for themselves the other night. The next question was: how would it be when Yugi and his friends came?

For now, though, he settled for the way they acted in private: that smile on his brother's face that never quite vanished, the way his fingers lightly touched Joey's as he pushed the coffee cup right into the other teen's hand and the look on Joey's face all the while – a look of adoration and definite gratitude.

'_If only the others could see this…'_

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Early in the afternoon, the promised visit took place. When the doorbell rang, Joey opened up to find his dearest friends – Yugi, Yami, Tea, Tristan and Ryou (and Bakura; the spirit had insisted on coming) – on the doorstep.

"Hi guys! C'mon in!" he invited them.

"It's good to see you again, Joey!" Yugi exclaimed and hugged him. Joey reached down to return the hug.

"It's great to see you guys, too."

"So, how was it?" Bakura asked.

"How was what?" Joey asked back.

"Jail."

"Bakura!" Ryou hissed and stepped on his dark side's foot, causing the other to draw in his breath sharply before growling:

"Hey, I'm just curious!"

"Still; it's so tactless of you to just waltz in here and ask that right away…!"

"Let's not get all upset. Why don't we go to the living room?" Joey suggested. His friends agreed, and so they went to sit there. Mokuba was already there and watching something on the TV.

"Hey Mokuba, how're you doing?" Tristan asked casually.

"Fine. You?"

"I can't complain."

The younger Kaiba refocused his attention on the early Christmas special as the others began to catch up on things with Joey. The blond told them everything – but minus certain details, like things that had happened between him and Seto. When the most important information had been exchanged, Bakura spoke up:

"How about if we go have a snowball fight?"

"What's gotten into **him**?" Joey asked, gaping at the thief.

"Bakura has decided that he likes snow – specifically: throwing it at people," Ryou explained.

"Three guesses who filled him in on **that** little trick," Tristan added with a meaningful glance at Ryou, who looked away.

"Sounds like fun, but I don't have a winter jacket…" Joey sighed.

"You're living with a filthy-rich guy and don't even have a winter jacket?!" Bakura almost yelled.

"This **is** surprising," Tea agreed with a rare frown on her face.

"But I haven't –" Joey started to explain when a new voice that came from the doorway joined the conversation:

"What are you all yelling about? It's quite irritating."

"Speaking of the devil! How come Blondie doesn't have a winter jacket?" Bakura asked.

"I wish you'd stop calling me that," Joey frowned.

"For your information: he has just spent roughly a month in prison, I don't go randomly buy things for people, and before that it wasn't cold enough for one. And besides: he hasn't asked me for one," Seto answered.

"That's what I was trying to tell you," Joey confirmed.

"I see that you're worried about him," Seto continued dryly, "but he'll get one soon."

"No fight, then…?" Bakura concluded disappointedly.

"**I'd** be grateful; you keep pelting us with snowballs whenever you get the chance to!" Tristan told him. He was trying to reason with the spirit, but he might as well have talked to a wall.

As they bickered, particularly Yami and Mokuba noticed how Seto went to Joey and supported himself on the chair lean. Their angle didn't allow them to see how Seto lightly fingered the blond's hair just above his neck, however… But they heard him suggest in a low voice:

"You could have my old jacket, if you like."

"That'd be great," Joey mumbled, enjoying the secret caresses he got from the brunet.

"And when we'll go do the Christmas shopping, you can pick a new one."

"Deal."

"…and just because you're afraid I might ruin that hairdo of yours!" a snarl from Bakura interrupted, making them look back at the others.

"You're just pissed because things aren't going your way!" Tristan retorted hotly.

"Guys, cut it out! We can go outside and have that fight!" Joey interjected.

"But didn't you just say…" Yugi began, who had been watching over the upcoming conflict.

Wordlessly, Seto left the living room, leaving the others to wonder whether they had driven him away. But judging by the still happy look on Joey's face, they hadn't.

"Let's just go out now so we can get it over with!" Tea sighed.

Agreeing mumbles were heard as they got up and headed for the door. When they got there and were putting on their coats, Seto came back with an old navy-blue, slightly tattered jacket draped over his arm. Joey gladly took it and put it on under the somewhat baffled stares of the others (except Yami).

"Everyone against Bakura!" Tristan yelled as they bounded out onto the snow-covered lawn.

"The other way around! Everyone against the whiner!" the spirit contradicted.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

In the end, it was almost a free-for-all. But only almost, for the usual small groups came to be: Ryou and Bakura, Yami and Yugi, and because Mokuba joined in shortly after the beginning and teamed up with Joey, Tristan sided with Tea so she wouldn't feel left out in any way. For over half an hour, the Kaiba mansion's lawn resembled a battlefield more than anything else.

The snowball fight ended in a draw, though Bakura assigned himself a private victory for smothering Tristan with an almost-avalanche of snowballs. After the fight, they went back inside to give their clothes a little bit of time to dry as they talked in front of a fire. Late in the afternoon, they finally said goodbye, and each of them wished a Merry Christmas on their way out. When it was his turn, Yugi mentioned something about a New Year's celebration and that they would be welcome to attend it as well. Joey was absolutely delighted with the thought, and for a change, Seto didn't even frown as he merely replied that they would keep it in mind. Joey caught Mokuba's eye, and in silent agreement they decided to pull a persuasion act on the CEO after Christmas.

Later, during dinner, Mokuba asked:

"Can we go do the Christmas shopping tomorrow, Seto?"

The brunet was silent for a moment, and that was all it took to indicate that he wasn't much of a "Christmas-shopper guy" and therefore not keen on going to the mall. But he also knew that he still needed to get presents as well, and no shops were open on December 24th.

"Good idea! You said we would go, anyway!" Joey reminded him.

"I know, I know… fine, we'll go tomorrow. Half past ten," he told them.

He was a bit surprised that he didn't hear any protests whatsoever from them as they nodded eagerly. There would be enough time to sleep in if they really wanted to – after all, that was one of the best things about vacation.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

At exactly half past ten the next day, Seto's black limousine took them to the mall. On the way there, Seto handed something to Joey.

"What's this?" the blond asked automatically.

"A credit card, puppy. I doubt that you'll want me around when you buy presents, and purchasing those requires money… just don't use up everything," Seto told him with a little smirk.

"Don't worry, I won't. Wow, I don't believe it… Rich Boy's credit card…" Joey muttered, fingering the plain white plastic card on which "Seto Kaiba" was imprinted in gold-colored letters.

Seto couldn't resist a smile as he watched the other teen's fascination._ 'You'll get used to something like credit cards quite soon…'_ he thought.

As soon as they arrived at the mall, Mokuba announced that he'd go looking for presents. Seto was visibly uneasy about letting his brother run off on his own – he wasn't as good at concealing his worry for his younger brother as he was with other issues, and besides, the recent changes in his personality were another reason for that.

"Big brother, I'll be alright! You'll see!" Mokuba tried to convince him.

"Maybe it'd help if we make an agreement to meet somewhere in an hour or so," Joey suggested.

"But –" Seto started to protest.

In a gesture of comfort, Joey lightly touched the brunet's arm. "Relax, Seto. You've got to let him go do his own thing every once in a while. He's right, everything will be fine."

"But still… the risk… especially at this time of the year…"

Joey dropped his voice a bit. "You really should try and be calm. The more you make a fuss, the more likely certain people might realize their chance. I mean, unfortunately, they aren't too stupid. Just try and act casual…"

Seto made a face, but tried to take the advice he was given. He took a deep breath and hoped that he had a relaxed expression on his face as he said:

"All right, I agree. In an hour, we'll meet at that tree over there." He pointed to a very spectacularly decorated Christmas tree that was impossible to miss.

Mokuba smiled happily. "Okay! See you guys later!" Then he ran off, quickly disappearing in the dense crowd of shoppers.

Seto watched his younger brother until he couldn't see him anymore and finally turned to Joey with a small, worried sigh. The other teen gave him an encouraging smile that said 'It'll be fine'.

"I guess we should get going too… how about if we get Mokuba's present together?" Seto suggested, hoping that he'd be able to distract himself properly.

"I'm with you," Joey replied and let him lead the way.

Apparently, Seto had already had something in mind, for he decidedly went to an electronics shop – more specifically: the gaming section of the store.

"He saw this new console in a catalogue, so I think it would be a good choice," Seto explained as he examined one of the boxes.

"Well, **your** case might be closed, but what about **me**? I mean, I really want to give him something he'll like… but I'm kinda short on ideas…" Joey sighed.

"If I could make a suggestion: I'll get him the console, and you can buy a few games. He's not too picky, by the way… just don't get anything… you know…"

"…girly," Joey guessed, to which Seto nodded. "Okay, that shouldn't be too hard." He ambled over to the racks that held the shop's game offers. Muttering to himself, he looked each one over, then picked out half a dozen games. At the cash-desk, Seto used his own credit card to pay for the things, then they left the store.

"So, I guess you want to run your own errands now?" Seto asked, checking his watch. They had 45 minutes left until they would meet at the tree.

"As you do too, probably," Joey replied. He saw the brunet look at his watch and added quietly: "He's fine, trust me."

"I just can't help it! You've seen what could happen! I remember how he said that you saved him from bullies…"

That seemed to have happened ages ago, Joey thought; back when they had still been enemies. Again, the blond was a bit amazed at how much had changed. Contrarily to his former indifference, Seto's face had become more readable, and in that moment, Joey just wished to rid him of the worry – be that by means of a hug or a kiss, he really didn't mind which. The thought of kissing the CEO undoubtedly excited him as he wondered what that would be like. But he strictly decided not to do it now – there was far too little privacy…

Instead, he gave him what looked like a playful nudge along with another smile. He was glad to see that Seto at least tried to smile back. Then there was nothing left to be said, so they turned away from each other as they pursued their own intentions.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Seto frowned as he fought his way through the crowds of shoppers. He didn't go to places like the mall very often anyways (especially not during this specific season), and usually he could only stand it for a very limited amount of time until he felt as if he would crack unless he got some more space around him. Now that there were even more people than usual, though, he believed to have already reached that point. Two madly giggling teenage girls bumped into him as they scurried from one boutique to another. Not even bothering to apologize in any way, they regained their balance and carried on their way. Scowling, Seto fought the urge to glare after them and decided yet again that malls could be highly hazardous for one's welfare – in more than one way, of course. (1)

The sign of a bank up ahead caught his eye, and he quickened his pace, eager to get out of the crowd. It felt like utmost relief to step through the doors and out of the hustle outside.

"Good day, sir, can we help you?" a woman asked.

"Yes," Seto replied, stepping up to her desk, "I'd like to ask you to make a credit card."

She recognized who he was and couldn't help but look a bit surprised. "Oh… another one, Mr. Kaiba?"

"Not for **me**," he told her, "A present for… somebody." Of course, he was thinking of Joey as he said that, and he barely could keep himself from smiling at that thought.

"As you wish. Could you please fill out this form?" She passed him a sheet of paper and a pen. Quickly, yet always writing neatly, Seto filled out the required fields and passed the paper back just a few minutes later.

"It should be done within an hour," she informed him.

Seto considered this. Perhaps they could stay at the mall just long enough so he could pick it up before they would go home again… then it would be over with without needing to mail it or anything. God knew that the post office wasn't necessarily reliable throughout the holidays…

"I'll come back in an hour, then," he said. She nodded, then he turned and left the bank. Part one was done… now on to part two. And then he would need to go back to the tree. Thinking of that immediately reminded him of Mokuba, and Seto frowned as he tried to fight the worry that still hadn't left him. _'Remember what Joey said… he's fine… fine…'_

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Joey was quite oblivious of the crowd as he wondered what to get Seto. He recalled how it had taken him quite a while to come up with something for his birthday; but this was Christmas they were talking about! To find something that would seem special enough… his only hope left was to get a sudden inspiration from what the shops offered. Taking a chance (and because he had to keep to a time schedule), Joey entered a department store. Perhaps he would get lucky in a place that sold so many different things…

He had entered in the fashion department of the store, for there were racks full of pants, sweaters and coats. Seeing those, Joey remembered something:

"_And when we'll go do the Christmas shopping, you can pick a new one."_

"Oh yeah, I could sort **that** out," Joey said to himself as he began looking at the offered coats. It would have to be a nice and warm one so he could go have snowball fights with Mokuba without second thoughts about getting wet and cold.

A coat that had a creamy brown color caught his eye, and he took it off the rack for a better look. It looked really nice, and he liked the color and the design. Quite simple, just like he preferred it. And the combination of creamy brown with the dark brown seams looked good. (2) Joey put it on for good measure and immediately decided that he liked it enough to buy it. A mirror stood nearby, and he regarded himself.

"This is great!" he said to nobody in particular. His fingers explored the coat's insides and found the price tag. Reading the price that was named, Joey's eyes widened remarkably.

_'God, I can't afford that!'_ was the first thought that entered his mind, _'I'd need a lot of bucks for this or –'_

_"A credit card, puppy."_

_'Of course!'_ Joey thought as he looked into his wallet, where he found the credit card he had been given earlier. He didn't dare make a guess how much money was on it – in any case, it was certainly more than enough to pay for the coat. Grinning happily, Joey hung the coat over his arm as he ventured deeper into the store. When he was passing the scarf section, he saw one that he thought would be perfect for Seto: the colors were a rich blue and pure black, and while the scarf was totally blue on one end, it faded to become black at the other end.

Without any hesitations whatsoever, Joey grabbed it and draped it over his coat. He hoped to find something more, but at least he would have something for sure. As he went on, he noticed that it was weird to know that he himself had quite a lot of money at hand and didn't need to count every cent like he saw that some people around him were doing. He grimaced a bit when he suddenly found himself comparing his present situation with what he would be going through if he were still living with his father. He shook his head a bit. Now was not the right time to be thinking about things like that – he now lived with people that really cared for him…

Perhaps he was on some kind of lucky streak today, he thought as he stopped short in front of a display of exclusive diamond creations. The things people could make out of stones nowadays… What had caught his attention was a dainty sculpture of a dog – heck, probably even a puppy! It had beady little eyes and was holding a flower (which looked quite like a rose) in its mouth. Joey bet that it would be wagging its tail if it were real. What's more, the dog was obviously being sold with a short poem written on the little wall behind it:

_"You are special; you stand out in a crowd:_

_A special friend of whom I'm proud." (3)_

Perhaps it sounded sappy, but Joey didn't care. To him, it was just perfect. By now, he was sure that he didn't just **like** Seto; he **loved** him, and this was a subtle way of expressing that. Maybe he'd even say those three little words…!

"May I help you?" asked one of the cashiers who noticed him.

"Yeah… I'll have that," Joey said and pointed to the dog.

"Yes… and how do you intend to pay, sir?" the man asked.

It was apparent that he didn't believe that the blond teen had enough money to pay for it. Joey fought hard to keep his voice from acquiring a mocking tone as he replied: "By credit card." Then he extracted the card from his wallet and pushed it towards the man.

The cashier looked at it, and his eyes widened as he read the name. He looked at Joey for one second before saying: "Sir, you're not Seto Kaiba…"

"I know. He lent it to me." As he spoke, his eyes added with a pointed look: 'You got a problem with that?'

For a short moment, the teen and the man just stared at each other, but then the latter gave up and started wrapping foam rubber around the sculpture so it would be a bit protected when it was transported. Joey put the coat and the scarf on the counter as well, and by pulling the card once through a scanning device, the cashier confirmed the purchases. He looked a bit unsurely at his customer as he passed him the plastic bag that contained all the things and said with what was almost only a mutter:

"Good day to you, and Happy Holidays."

"Thank you," Joey replied plainly and stuffed the credit card back into his wallet. He looked at a clock overhead and saw that it was time to get back to the meeting point. "Happy Holidays to you too, by the way," he added before he left.

The cashier only stared after him, wondering how that boy had managed to get Seto Kaiba – Seto Kaiba, of all people! – to lend him a credit card. One of those "holiday miracles", maybe? That was his best guess, for all he knew.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

As soon as the tree came into view, he saw Seto standing there, waiting. At first glance, the brunet seemed to be calm, but one closer look revealed that his lips were slightly pursed, and there was an alert look in his eyes. Simply everything about him, especially the way he stood there, carried a simple message: 'Don't you dare come near me.' As he thought this, Joey grinned to himself. He was sure that certain exceptions could be made – after all, rules and guidelines were always confirmed by their exceptions. Putting on his most cheerful face, he approached the CEO.

"Hey there, Seto! Already done?"

"Hmm?" The other teen gave up his hobby-of-the-moment to face the blond. "You actually are back on time! Quite unlike when you go to school, isn't it?"

This was only a friendly-meant tease, as Joey correctly deciphered the tone of voice. In response, his grin widened as he replied happily: "I know. I can **always** be on time when it comes to things I like. And it looks like you're early, as always."

"I've been here for fifteen minutes."

"You were done that quickly?!"

"Surely you've noticed that I'm not too fond of this place, so I tend to get shopping errands done as quickly as possible…" He glanced down at his watch. The hour was over. Joey noticed that and started looking around as well – after all, he knew that there was no way he would be able to calm Seto down now that the time limit had been reached.

A few tense minutes later, a familiar face appeared in the horde of shoppers.

"Hey, look!" Joey exclaimed and pointed as he nudged Seto's arm.

The brunet did as he was told to and gave a small sigh of relief when he saw his brother elbowing his way through the crowd, then breaking into a run.

"Hi guys!" Mokuba greeted them cheerfully as he hugged his brother.

Seto hugged him back with a muttered: "Thank goodness!"

"You've been worried about me all this time, big brother?" Mokuba asked quietly.

The elder Kaiba nodded, and Joey added: "Yeah. I kept trying to tell him that you're fine…"

"Yet you know that I just can't help it," Seto reminded him.

"Hey, I didn't say that I have a problem with that!" Joey laughed.

"Um… I guess it's time to go now, right?" Mokuba piped up. He was all too familiar with Seto's dislikes for malls…

"Actually, no," his brother replied. When Mokuba and Joey both gawked at him, he explained: "There's a little matter I need to attend in an hour, so we might as well wait here. I'll leave it up to you on what we'll do now, however."

Mokuba's eyes lit up. "Really?! Oh, I know what we could do! Can we go to Häägen-Dazs, Seto? We haven't been there in ages…!" (4)

Joey looked happy at the suggestion, and Seto couldn't suppress his amazement. "What?! It's winter, how could you want ice cream in the coldest season of the year?"

"It's never too cold for ice cream!" Mokuba beamed.

"I totally agree," Joey added.

Seto sighed. This was unbelievable… but because he had promised to let them choose and Mokuba had returned safely, he agreed. "Fine. Lead the way."

Mokuba cheered and started to take them to the place. Joey and Seto followed, walking side by side, and they found it a bit hard to resist doing something simple like linking their arms as they had done when returning home from the final court visit…

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

They spent an hour sitting in the little ice cream parlor and enjoying some quality time together. Later, Seto excused himself so he could quickly go back to the bank to pick up the credit card he had ordered, and then they could finally go home. As they were driven home in the limousine, Mokuba happily took notice of how Joey leaned against Seto whilst the brunet made no attempts whatsoever to conceal his happiness; so far, he had still tried to act out that emotion when he was alone with Joey or at least convinced that they weren't being watched. When he returned the trusting gesture, he caught his brother's eye. The youngster smiled widely, to which Seto gave a short chuckle. He could imagine that his sibling was quite pleased with himself – after all, what he had been aiming at had come to be, save two little things that still needed to be done.

* * *

(1) I've decided that often enough when I go to the mall to look at Christmas exhibitions... I kinda have a phobia for really big crowds, and I almost panicked in a "disco" once... _-shudders-_

(2) I once found a lovely picture on which he was wearing a coat like that, so I made use of that delayed inspiration.

(3) We used to have a figurine like that (though it wasn't made of diamonds), and I always thought it was way cute. I like that little poem, even if many think that it's sappy - I wouldn't mind getting a present like that... :)

(4) I think you can write that name with "ä" or just "a", but I like "ä" better (probably because German is my mother tongue). And hell, I like Häägen-Dazs, especially that great Oreo-biscuit flavor they have... and the Baileys flavor... mmmmmh... :))))

Next chapter will be Xmas, I promise - actually, that's almost convenient timing, 'cause I'm already starting to get into the Christmas spirit XD

Oh yeah, and I didn't hesitate for a single second to have pity on Mokuba - he can't get kidnapped all the time...


	15. Chapter 15

First off (as usual), my apologies for the update delay, but there have been lots of things to do for school... (damn those presentations! _-argl-_)

As I promised you at the end of the previous chapter, it'll be Xmas time in this one! _-yay for Xmas-_ I hope I won't be startling you too much, 'cause this chapter will contain romance! Yes, I figured that I've restrained it enough, and don't you agree that they deserve it by now?? Anyway, while I was writing this, I kept wondering if it was too much or not, but I just couldn't change it, so there you go...

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

**Important note: this is only part one of the chapter! I'm still finishing part two, but I figured that I've taken far too long with the update anyway, so I'll post the first half now and add the second part to this chapter's content when it's done. That okay with you guys? Just wanna make sure that there won't be any confusions...**

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

**Achtung Achtung!**

I hope you'll tell me once again what you think. And there's an additional request I have for you, my treasured reviewers: could you maybe give me a few hints on what I could write about next? I know for sure that I will write about the NY celebration that Yugi mentioned in chap. 14, but otherwise I'm just left with a few mental images I got as I listened to music. So, any ideas are welcome! But remember this - I quote myself - _"I'm way too uptight to attempt a try to write something like that (it would only be hinted)... "_. Please don't bug me to try and write explicit graphic things like that, it just wouldn't work. (_- hopes that you won't kill me for that...-_) But aside from that, any ideas are welcome!

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

**YaoiFan87**: Hehe, I figured that after all I had done, they deserved a bit of happiness, don't you think? And besides, I actually felt in the mood to write something happy (that's not always given...). _-smile-_ Ooh yes, wouldn't we all wish for a Christmas like that (or that Halloween party, or the outing to the pool, etc)?! _-sigh-_ Lol, I'm jealous of him too, even though I usually have enough money to buy things, but I'm always afraid that it won't be worth spending... Hell, it's getting "cold" now (yay, winter's coming!), and in the Coop I saw a teeny-tiny bucket of HD Baileys ice cream (mmmmh!) – I couldn't resist buying it! People sure looked strangely at me when I ate it in the train... ;-)))

**Mistress of the Shadow Heaven**: I'll do my best, I promise :)

**Lionessmon**: You're welcome ;) No, seriously, I wouldn't have the heart to let that happen to him; and it seems to happen enough anyway... If only my problems were merely with big crowds, but lately I've been experiencing the same discomfort in smaller crowds – I'm really not that much of a sociable person, I feel much better when I'm alone and in my room... _-sigh-_

**Frathworth and Butts**: Man, it was almost midnight when I read your review, and I was all like "OMG!!" :)))))) I can't really describe exactly how happy it made me, thank you very, very, very much!! I did consider this story to be one of the better ones I have written, but that someone else would like it so much... I'm so honored. Yeah, I tend to focus on the _-ahem-_ not-so-graphic aspects of a relationship because I lack the will to use the proper vocabulary for the physical interaction (_-sweatdrop-_ see?), I'm way too uptight to attempt a try to write something like that (it would only be hinted)... _-blush-_ I know what you mean, I've read some pretty weird stuff too, though I just did it the way you see it the way it came from me (I think you get what I'm trying to say, right?). I'll definitely need to take some time, 'cause school is really getting to me... but I'll do my very best not to let you guys down, I owe you way too much for your terrific feedbacks :) Oh, and huggles and kisses to you too :))))

**Resoan**: Yay, I'm glad that you like it :))) And many thanks for the compliment on my writing – usually, that's the point I worry most about when letting other people read the stuff I write. Up to the mid-90s, English was my everyday language, but then (when I changed schools) the kids only spoke Swiss German, so I had no other choice but to make more use of that language. And meanwhile, I admit that my English (and High German) has suffered from SG, but apparently I can keep it at a decent level. I guess it helps that approx. 70 percent of the books I read resp. things I write are in English. But I'm grateful for helpful advice I am given regarding grammar etc, so I gladly accept your offer! ;)

**animegurl088**: Thanks! ;)

That'll be all for now. Remember, the second part will come as soon as I'm done with it... (you guys wouldn't believe how often I printed this stuff out to carefully look it over for errors... _-rolls eyes-_)

* * *

On December 24th, Seto walked through the mansion, observing how much it had changed in just half a day of decorating. Joey and Mokuba had started sometime in the middle of the morning by going up to the attic and retrieving all the cardboard boxes that were filled with ornaments for the tree, plastic figurines to put on shelves and a bunch of other things like window stickers of snowflakes and reindeer.

Traditional wreaths hung on the most important doors, and garlands of blinking stars hung from some overhead lights. Seto smiled to himself with a short headshake; Mokuba had always liked lots and lots of decorations. The more, the better – that was probably his motto during this particular holiday. Of course, that also went for the Santa Claus figurines that seemed to be ho-ho-ho-ing at you from the bottom of nearly every staircase and numerous doorways. Everywhere around were things that sparkled merrily.

Usually the brunet didn't make a secret of the fact that he wasn't exactly fond of all the Christmas accessories, but he decided that this year he could let off that attitude; after all, this time he had reasons "to be merry" like everyone else: Kaiba Corp. was doing as good as ever, he had been able to catch up on things he had been deprived of as a child… and then there was Joey, of course. Thanks to the blond, he was feeling better than he had in years.

_'And to think that I would have refused to let him stay if it hadn't been for Mokuba… what I would have missed…'_ he mused as he directed his steps toward the living room.

It was definitely one of the most heavily decorated rooms in the entire house: above the fireplace hung the stockings, including the one that Mokuba had picked out for Joey during Christmas shopping. As usual, the shelves were littered with snowman and reindeer figurines as well as a little replica of Santa's sleigh filled with fake presents. The Christmas tree stood next to the fireplace, though not in the corner of the room; Mokuba always insisted on decorating the entire tree, claiming that it was a waste to do just "half the job". (1)

The sofas and chairs were completely occupied with boxes of tree ornaments. Seto guessed that thanks to his little brother, they had practically everything for Christmas trees: ribbons (most were blue), electric lights, holders for real candles, special ornaments, and of course the usual assembly of glass Christmas ball ornaments. And in a rectangular box lay the most important thing of all (according to Mokuba): the Christmas Star for the treetop.

Currently, the raven-haired boy was busy with neatly arranging the ribbons that were loosely wrapped around the tree. Joey was straining to properly wind the ribbons around the topmost branches – up there, that was his job, for of course Mokuba couldn't reach that high… In the background, a Christmas CD was playing the classic songs like "Jingle Bells" and "White Christmas".

While Joey finished battling the ribbons, Mokuba proceeded to open one of the boxes. He picked up a little blue train ornament.

"I used to have something like that, too," Joey said when he noticed it, "It said 'My first Christmas' on it…" (2)

"Same thing here," Mokuba replied, "Papa gave it to me one Christmas. I used to love the model trains in the windows, so he got it for me so I'd have a little one of my own to hang on the tree."

"Those are your special decorations, then?" Joey asked as he peered into the box.

"Yeah… this one is Seto's, for instance." He held up an ornament that featured a heap of presents.

Joey opened his mouth to say something when he was interrupted by someone else:

"Any idea why I got that?"

The two of them whirled around and saw Seto standing in the doorway. Though he had the smirk that indicated an almost taunting challenge on his face, his eyes neutralized that meaning again.

"Um… because you like presents… like everyone else does?" Joey suggested with a sheepish grin.

"Actually, no… there are few presents that I accept and therefore like. The true meaning is that this little gadget supposedly symbolizes me being a 'gifted child'. I got it from the man who introduced me to the world of games. He wasn't exactly my grandfather, yet I sometimes called him that…" the brunet added softly as he looked at the object in Mokuba's hands.

"Then it's yours to hang up," Joey said brightly and passed it from the younger to the elder Kaiba.

Seto took it and slowly hung it on one of the branches. Mokuba was watching him wistfully; his brother rarely participated in decorating the tree, and when he did, it was usually just to help his sibling with the ribbons at the treetop. But aside from that, he left the entire ordeal to his little brother; especially the "special ornaments", for they held memories he didn't want to face, no matter how happy they were. After all, Seto wasn't somebody who dwelled on the past – his focus was entirely on the present and the future.

"Are you alright?" Joey asked when he noticed the unfamiliar, distant look on the CEO's face.

"Yes… I'm fine. Look, you can call me when you're done, if you want. I'll go wrap presents or something," he excused himself.

Joey looked a bit confused, but chose not to question the reaction of his former enemy. Instead, he shrugged and replied: "Okay."

Seto smiled – that look on the puppy's face was quite cute, he thought – and fleetingly petted one of the blond hair strands before turning away and leaving the room.

"What're you thinking about?" Mokuba asked as he saw the teen look wistfully at the doorway where Seto had just disappeared.

"Ya know, the more he does that, the harder it becomes to think about how we once couldn't stand each other…" was the thoughtful response.

"Yes, big brother likes you very much…"

"But it's not as if he's always had somewhere deep inside of him or whatever?" Joey asked. (3)

"No. He said many things about you that I wish I hadn't heard – but now he likes you, and that's all that matters."

Joey grinned. "Sometimes I could almost swear that you were **hoping** for something like this to happen."

Mokuba laughed and hung a little bear wearing a Santa hat on a branch. "Eventually something would have happened anyway." Seeing Joey's slightly stunned look, he couldn't help himself but laugh again. "Honestly, if Seto would have wanted a girlfriend, he would've had one a long time ago."

"There's really more to you than one would think at first," Joey commented with a wink.

Mokuba just beamed and gave Joey a short hug before they continued decorating the tree.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

About two hours later, Seto was distracted from the work he was doing by a soft knock on his door.

"Yes?" he asked.

He looked up when he heard how the door was opened. It was Joey. The blond barely set foot inside the room and said upon noticing the inquisitive look of the CEO:

"We're done now. Maybe… you wanna come have a look?"

Seto was glad for the interruption – after all, he had actually planned not to work over Christmas, but because he was so used to doing just that, he simply hadn't been able to resist the temptation. He had also acquired the rather troublesome habit of hardly being able to stop by his own will once he had started…

"Alright, I'm coming," he replied and quickly saved the data and shut down the laptop. Then he joined Joey, who patiently waited at the door. As they left the study behind them to saunter downstairs, Seto noticed that Joey had white spots on his shirt.

"What happened to you?" he asked.

"What? This?" Joey asked back, pointing to the spots, "Me and Mokuba just made some cookies, that's all."

"I trust they'll be as good as the other things you make, won't they?" Seto guessed with a grin.

"That's up to you to decide," Joey shot back.

Seto laughed shortly before he lightly took Joey's hand in his own. Hand in hand, they walked down the stairs. A rich scent of cookies filled the air, and Seto breathed in deeply. The soft sigh that followed told Joey that the brunet was enthralled by the scent. Grinning, he thought:

'_Wait till you __**taste**__ them…!'_

Holding Seto's hand tighter, he led him to the living room. A faint glowing that came from the room indicated that Mokuba had already turned on the lights.

"Hi Seto! What d'you think?" the boy asked enthusiastically when he spotted his older brother, who was still holding hands with Joey.

The tree looked marvelous. Tiny snowmen, snowflakes and even a little bell hung from the branches. For now, the electric lights were turned on and made some of the ornaments sparkle. The candles had already been fastened to the branches, though they weren't to be lighted just yet – that would happen when they would sit around the tree later that evening. As he looked the entire tree over from the star at the top to the lowest branch, Seto noticed that the others had already put their presents beneath it. Subconsciously, he made a note to himself to get his later on as well.

Joey, who was already familiar with the tree's looks, of course, watched Seto. The blue eyes were faintly shining – because of the light that illuminated them? Or out of fascination? Probably both… Smiling, he gently squeezed the hand he was holding.

At that touch, Seto tore his gaze from the tree and looked at the other teen. It was incredibly satisfying to simply look at that smile and know that it was entirely for him. In response to the silent question he was being asked, he whispered:

"It's beautiful."

Joey's smile widened, and he let his head drop onto the shoulder of the CEO. Seto bowed his head a bit and breathed in deeply again. Even if the smell of cookies had not been in the air anymore, Joey's hair was full of the scent. A serene look of happiness spread across his face as he simply stood there with his nose half-buried in the mop of blond hair.

Needless to say, Mokuba was absolutely delighted to watch such a sweet interaction; it was pure proof that his brother had taken a large step in overcoming the attitude he had kept up for nearly ten years now. He guessed that they had not kissed yet – otherwise they surely would have now, for the opportunity seemed to be too perfect to miss. Just when he gave Seto a hug, a shrill beeping sound came from the kitchen.

Joey's head left Seto's shoulder as he looked to the kitchen. "The cookies! C'mon, Mokuba, you can have the first one, if you like!"

"Yay!" the boy cheered and was about to follow the blond when he was told by Seto:

"Only **one**, Mokuba! Otherwise you'll spoil your appetite for dinner…"

"Don't worry, Seto!" came a hasty, reassuring reply before the raven-haired boy bounded off to the source of the cookie smell.

The brunet stayed behind and looked at the tree again. So much happiness was in the air… yet it wasn't quite complete. He had yet to kiss his puppy – after a little more than three-and-a-half months, he would express the feelings that had grown stronger over time in a most trusting and affectionate way. Those thoughts were interrupted when he felt someone tugging at the sleeve of his sweater. He knew this particular kind of tugging… He looked down at his brother.

"Yes, Mokuba?"

"I know that you usually don't do this, but you've just **gotta** try one! They're so good!"

"But there will be dinner in just two hours!"

"One cookie won't fill you up! Go on!" Mokuba persuaded him and forced the cookie he had brought along into Seto's hands.

It was a little sugar cookie (4) that had the form of a bell. It had been decorated with a bit of icing and some colorful sprinkles and looked quite tasty. Under the highly observant gaze of his brother, Seto bit off half of it. A heavenly, sweet taste filled his mouth as the biscuit slowly began to dissolve on his tongue. An experience like that couldn't be left uncommented.

"This is so delicious…" he sighed happily, to which Mokuba replied:

"See? I told you!"

"You like them?" another voice asked, and Seto turned around to see Joey standing behind him.

"I'm not that much of a cookie-eater, but this has got to be one of the best I have ever had," Seto told him honestly.

A radiant smile enlightened Joey's face. "Gee, I'm flattered… thanks for the compliment!" He watched how Seto finished off the rest of the cookie, glad that they had turned out as good as he had hoped they would.

"Big brother, I didn't see **your** presents under the tree…" Mokuba spoke up.

"Ah yes, I was about to go get mine. I'll be right back," the CEO replied and tousled the kid's hair. After casting another glance at Joey, he left the room to get the parcels. When he came back, he heard voices in the kitchen – and when the word "cookie" reached his ears, Seto silently approached the voices' source. The assumptions he had made on the way there proved to be right: Mokuba was begging Joey for another cookie.

"…just one! Please?"

"Don't you want to save them for later?"

"That too, but they're just so good…!"

"Well…" Joey began, but a sudden yelp from Mokuba made him cut his response short. Startled, he whirled around – and grinned.

Seto had sneaked into the kitchen and had now grabbed his little brother playfully around the middle. He laughed quietly at how the youngster tried in vain to free himself and spoke in a playfully reproachful murmur:

"What did I tell you about having more than one cookie before dinner?"

"Seto…" Mokuba whined.

His older brother sensed that he would try to pull the act of irresistible cuteness on him, so he went into the defense before it was too late: "Absolutely not. You can have plenty later on, but not now."

Mokuba pouted a bit – still, he looked adorable – but then he gave in with a somewhat glum: "Yes, big brother"

Satisfied, Seto hugged his brother, and when he stood up again, Mokuba already looked happy again.

"How about if we help Joey a bit by setting the table?" he suggested.

"Okay… can we decorate it too, Seto?"

The brunet shrugged. "Why not? Everything else is decorated…"

"Now you're talking!" Mokuba cheered and ran off to get whatever he used to adorn the table with.

"You guys…" Joey laughed quietly, shaking his head a bit.

"I can be pretty persuasive too," Seto smirked, "At this time of the year, all I need to do is give him something to decorate."

Joey cast him another amused smile before he turned back to watch over what he was cooking. Seto's eyes lingered on him a moment longer before a few plunking noises announced Mokuba's return as the boy set some candles onto the table. His older brother joined him just then, and together they started to give the table what Mokuba called "the blue look".

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

After dinner, they decided to simply sit around the tree and play some games. Although Mokuba didn't believe in Santa Claus anymore, the ritual of unwrapping the presents still was held on Christmas Day. (5) In the background, a Christmas CD was playing again, and occasionally Joey and Mokuba sang along a bit. After having played "Queen of Spades" and "Hearts", they were now in the process of teaching Mokuba a simple variation of Poker. (6)

"You mustn't lose track of the possibilities the cards offer you," Seto explained and pointed out a few in his own hand and that of his brother, "And don't forget one of the most important things of all: the poker face."

"In other words: the expression on **your** face when you're at school, for example," Joey teased. Indeed; although the situation was improving, Seto still usually sported a blank, neutral expression when he wasn't at home – that was another reason why Joey had used to "accuse" him of being a robot.

Seto smirked. "Funny that **you** should speak up… observe, Mokuba," he told the youngster and gestured to their friend, "Joey is a prime example for a poor poker face."

"Am **not**!" the blond retorted heatedly.

"See? Unable to keep his cool, always giving himself away…"

Joey gave a fake pout which was only briefly visible because he held up his cards to obscure his face. Mokuba giggled while Seto shook his head a bit and reached out to make the other teen lower the cards. When he could look into the amber eyes again, their owner said:

"Drop your poker face already, Rich Boy!"

A smile began to dawn on the almost expressionless face. "Why, puppy?"

"Because smiling suits you much better."

The brunet granted him what he wanted to see, and Joey's face reclaimed the cheerfulness which he had never really lost in the first place. Then they both turned to Mokuba, who asked:

"And what do I need the poker face for?"

"To keep others from noticing that you're nervous, for example…"

They played a few demonstrating rounds to help Mokuba get the hang of it. And although the rounds were just exemplary, the two older teens played quite seriously. It quickly became apparent that when Joey played a game, he played it whole-heartedly, and he certainly wasn't stingy with his play chips; in just a few rounds, he lost almost all of them to Seto, who didn't only have lucky cards, but also had the upper hand in the bidding ordeal.

"Aw, man! How did you know I was only bluffing?!" Joey sighed exasperatedly when he lost the rest of his chips after pulling an "all-in" move.

Seto put his cards down face-up and grinned. "Well, you gave yourself away yet again. I **told** you that you have a poor poker face…"

"I **didn't** –"

"Yes, you did," he interrupted the attempted protest, "You think I didn't notice those brief, shifty movements of your eyes? The tension in your face? The ghost of a frown when you obviously got a bad card?"

"Alright, you got me!" Joey sighed, spreading his hands in defeat.

"Maybe my brother could teach you a trick or two to help you improve!" Mokuba suggested. He had not needed to try making a poker face – because he was still a beginner, he usually just looked a bit confused, which was no help for potential opponents.

"You think so…?" Joey wondered and cast a playfully inquisitive look at the CEO.

"Depends upon how nicely you ask," was the reply he got.

Mokuba grinned widely as he helped himself to a little gingerbread man. The heap of cookies they had put on a plate was nearly gone, though most of them had been eaten by himself and Joey. Seto had only had three or four, but he had savored each and every one of them. The highly content expression on his face as he did that made him look a bit younger than he actually was…

"I think I'll go to bed now," Mokuba announced after finishing off the rest of the gingerbread man.

"Already?! Somehow, I figured you would be up until midnight…" Joey exclaimed as he glanced at a clock. The displayed time indicated that it was barely quarter past eleven.

"Have you already forgotten that there'll be presents tomorrow?" Mokuba asked gleefully.

"Hell no! You'll probably be up and about at the crack of dawn, won't you?" Joey grinned.

"What? No, that's way too late… I'll make sure that you'll get up at a reasonable time!"

"Silly puppy…" Seto laughed quietly, "Have you already forgotten that the sun rises later in the winter?"

"Oh, knock it off…" A teasing nudge accompanied that response.

"See you guys tomorrow!" Mokuba said brightly and gave them both a hug before he left for his bedroom.

When they were alone again, Joey let his head rest against the lean of the sofa and sighed contently. Seto watched him, enjoying the relaxed look of the blond; vaguely, he wondered what Christmas had been like for him in the last few years. Even if there hadn't been any violence due to the bastard who called himself a father (thus was his ever-remaining opinion of the man), it seemed highly likely that the events had been joyless.

"This is what Christmas should always be like," Joey suddenly muttered.

Seto blinked, then asked: "I guess you didn't have that much of a Christmas celebration with your father, right?"

A cloud of resentment tainted the sparkle of his eyes as he answered quietly: "Yeah… even if he wasn't drunk, he didn't get in the spirit. He always claimed that there was nothing to be happy about. So I sometimes went to Yug's so I wouldn't miss out entirely on the holiday..."

That sounded exactly like a thing that Yugi would do, Seto thought. He knew to some extent what Joey was talking about – his stepfather had rejected the idea of Christmas as well. And he knew that if it hadn't been for Mokuba, he probably would not have resumed celebrating it. When he told Joey this, the teen nodded.

"Sounds quite like you, Seto… but at least you had someone with you who was **willing** to celebrate."

Seto laughed bitterly. "Don't think that it was all happy-go-lucky just because we were together. I must admit that I often gave Mokuba a hard time because I was so absorbed with work."

"But now you're not."

"Indeed, I'm not. And I'd like to thank you for that."

"And I still thank you for letting me stay here."

After that, Joey hugged him, and Seto willingly let it happen. Somehow, the situation reminded him of the first hug he had ever received from the blond. Lightly, he petted the mop of hair that was just beneath his chin.

"Joey, perhaps we should turn in too," he whispered.

"You're probably right," a mumble reached his ears, "It'd be a shame for anyone to be in a bad mood tomorrow…"

"I'll just go put out the candles, okay?"

Joey nodded and drew back, allowing Seto to stand up and proceed to extinguish the flames of the candles on the tree. The brunet also quickly took the time to replace them with new ones they could light tomorrow morning. Then he beckoned Joey to follow him, and together they went upstairs. As they drew closer to Joey's room, Seto suddenly said:

"Puppy, I wonder if you'd like to stay with me tonight."

Joey stared at him, and his cheeks turned red with an intense blush. "Wh-What?! You mean…"

"Not what you think," he interrupted softly, "Just… being together. Savor a few moments… You get the point, don't you?"

The red faded into a tone of pink, and the other teen agreed. "Oh, yes… I get it. Sure… um, I'll just get ready and then I'll come to you, okay?"

Seto just made an inviting gesture to the door before continuing on to his room.

Joey couldn't deny that he felt rather excited as he changed into his pajamas and went to brush his teeth. He almost wanted to laugh a bit when he imagined how at least half the girl population of Domino would gladly die just to be in his place tonight. They would freak out if they knew…

After brushing his teeth, he held his promise and went to Seto's room. Just as he slowly entered, the door to the bathroom opened, and the elder Kaiba emerged.

"Ah, there you are, puppy," he remarked before he went to his bed. He sat down on it and invited the other to come. Joey did just that, and as he sat on the bed as well, he said carefully:

"I dunno, but I just can't get rid of the feeling that you're up to something…"

"Do you, now?" Seto asked interestedly, quirking an eyebrow.

"Yeah… you've been this way ever since I could come back for good… and today…" His voice trailed off as he considered it unnecessary to recall how close they had been.

"I'm not at all used to doing it this way… but I figured that it might be a good way of showing you how glad I am to have you back."

"You mean…?"

"Who said that **you'd** need to make the first move all of the time? I am just as capable of doing that if I only want to."

"When you say that now, it doesn't sound that surprising to me," Joey mused. He knew that if the brunet really wanted something, he usually got it – of course, that excluded the desired victory over Yami. "And yet… you vehemently refused anything like this for so long…"

"I won't do it if you don't want me to," Seto told him.

Joey shook his head. "I think you're getting me wrong… This is just me reflecting on how you've changed."

"Could I say the same about you?" Seto asked quietly as he leaned forward a bit, watchfully taking notice of every reaction of the teen in front of him.

"Yes," Joey replied seriously, "I mean… I like you, Seto, I really do."

"I like you too, Joey. Very much, actually," he added quietly before planting a chaste kiss on Joey's forehead. The blond closed his eyes in satisfaction. He wanted to return the favor, even if it were only to show Seto how good it felt to be touched so affectionately by someone whom you liked in return. When the other drew back, Joey decided to really settle something.

"Seto?"

"Hmm?"

"Just for the record… are we together now? You know…"

_'…Boyfriends?'_ Seto's mind completed the sentence. "Yes, I'd say we are, puppy. We're together."

He was happy, without a doubt; still, it felt unusual to say such words. So far, he had always turned down any attempts whatsoever of others who wanted a relationship with him, so of course he was a bit unsure when it came down to this "romantic talk" stuff – and besides, he still was a teenager, although his attitude often let people forget that. It all came down to those things.

Joey liked the way that sounded: being together. With Seto Kaiba. What an outcome, all after a bit of honesty, fairness and better acquaintance…!

When Seto saw the happy look on the other's face, he decided that the time had come. The time to put his feelings into a much more significant action, one that had a clearer meaning than a kiss on the forehead. He supposed that some of those thoughts must have shown on his face, for Joey suddenly was quite restless with excitement. He looked as if he were saying 'I know that something special's coming, and I'm not gonna miss it'.

Lightly, Seto laid a hand on Joey's shoulder. A second later, he overcame the space between them, and their lips made contact. It was one of those quick but cute kisses, the type that was like gave a crumbling wall a last poke just to watch it fall apart for good. As he slowly broke the moment, Seto realized how he had overcome himself too. Blinking once at that thought, he looked at the other boy.

Joey looked positively thrilled about what had just happened. And in his opinion, it could hardly be any better: after all, he was going to stay at Seto's side tonight and could most probably count on getting another kiss before going to sleep.

"I think this is really gonna be good," he said.

"What?" Seto asked.

"You know… **us**. I think we're in for something really good," Joey beamed as he contently let himself fall back onto the sheets.

"I hope you're not so disillusioned to believe that it will **always** be good…" Seto remarked as he lay down beside him.

"I'm not. I just don't think about that right now," Joey replied.

Seto gave a short laugh. "You're right. I guess I got caught up too much in the future for a change."

"Don't sweat it." Joey yawned a little – once again looking quite puppyish as he did so – then added: "I'm in favor that we get some sleep before your brother carries out his threat of 'making sure that we'll get up at a reasonable time'…"

"So am I," Seto agreed and gently laid his arms around the blond.

"G'night, Seto," Joey muttered as he began to fall asleep, definitely feeling as happy as could be.

"Sleep well, puppy," the brunet whispered back before softly kissing him again, thus causing him to snuggle up a little bit closer. Just a few moments later, both of them had fallen asleep. (7)

* * *

(1) Oh yeah, definitely. Sadly, our tree is always so close to the window, so one side's usually a bit bare... _-sigh-_ What a waste, it's such a shame not to use all the decorations...

(2) Those gadgets are just too cute. I have a kitten like that... (yay!)

(3) Um... well, don't get me wrong, once in a while I like those stories when the feelings have "always been there somewhere deep inside", but I figured that that's not the way this fic worked...

(4) Whew, I almost made a mistake at that point: I was about to use the names of the Swiss cookies Mom makes every year, and then I wondered what they were called... and then she told me that those cookies aren't known overseas, that they're "old world" European cookies (Brunsli, Mailänderli, Zimtstärne, Sablés, Spitzbuebe etc). Damn. They're so good...! I then decided to use American cookies – that way, I could use Mom and Dad as "name information resources". So yeah, so much for my little cookie anecdote... ;)

(5) We do it differently... we get our presents on Christmas Eve now that we don't believe in Santa anymore...

(6) Ah yes, Poker. Dad loves that game, he just can't resist bragging about how he won very often when he played it in the Navy... he also keeps reminding us of that particular face. But I just can't help it, I always give myself away... _-sigh-_

(7) It took me forever to write that particular scene, please forgive me if it's bad... _-cringes-_


	16. Chapter 16

Hi guys! Ah, it's good to be back... :)

Change of plans. I'll just make this chapter 16 instead of reloading chapter 15. Meh. It wouldn't be the first time that I let off my original plan, but I don't think that it's an inconvenience in this case...

**Remember, guys, I'm still wondering if you have any suggestions for things that you'd like to come to be... (excluding a certain issue I mentioned in the previous chapter) Aside from that, I'm all open for what you've got to say and would be most grateful for your assistance :) So don't hesitate to give me that sort of feedback...**

Ah, 55 reviews total...!! _-almost swoons-_ God, I love you guys so much, this is such a blessing...! _-big, shiny eyes- _Where would I be without so many positive feedbacks? (answer: spread-eagled on the floor, squished by my increasingly extreme mood swings, that's where...)

Oh yeah, one more thing: beware the awful... um... I don't even know what to call it, imagine that... the presents thing... ye Gods... look, just try and be a bit forgiving when it comes to the present-unwrapping session... _-sighs and lets head conk onto the table-_

**dmc87**: _-blushes-_ Really? Seriously, I'm way beyond flattered... you have no idea how happy it makes me to hear someone say that :D I promise that I'll try to do just that. :)

**bookworm3213**: Thanks! I'm trying to get back to this as often as I can...

**blackorchid143**: I know... but I simply couldn't just have everything go A-Okay (figures). Anyway... Really? I gotta go look for that song... thanks for that recommendation. (now that I've found it and listened to it - oooh, such a beautiful song, yes, you're right...!)

**ForestWalker**: Many thanks for the compliment! A few others said the same thing about the relationship... I'm so glad that you guys like that - you know, sometimes I was afraid that you'd think it was too lengthy or something...! Um, yeah, I kinda figured that, I'm quite into these things... you know, cuteness and clichés; I've tried to get away from it, but I just can't _-sighs-_ I still hear my German teacher bitching about my inability to do that ;) Okay, I'll take note of that... still, maybe you'd have a response to my aforementioned suggestion...?

**Frathworth and Butts**: _- is close to tears-_ Gosh, thanks so much for that review... I had been hoping to hear from you again :))) I'm glad I made your day with the update - and let me assure you that every review I get does the same thing for me:) Hehe, yeah, I love Xmas too... I've already bought a decoration (a clip-on bird) for my plastic tree - and I'm fighting a strong urge to fetch that thing from the attic and decorate it now, then re-decorate it again in December... _-squeals-_ (My Mom called me nuts because of that, BTW _-headshake-_) And I wanna start with the Xmas songs, too, but I want to avoid being fed up with them by the time the season's really here, so oh well. That's life. _-shrugs sadly-_ Yay, I'm really flattered by your compliment! I adore him too, I only wish my own brother were more like him... _-sniff-_ Ooh, I'm glad you liked the kiss... I know it was probably way cliché or something, but I was thinking "Hey, they're basically in love, so what the heck"...! _-giggles-_ Anyway, a million thanks for that wonderful review - and yeah, I hope I will (_-sarcastic gagging-_ I want vacaaaaaation!!). Kisses galore for you :))) (Oh yeah, about the P.S: _-lol-_ :D)

**Solo's Orca**: Wow, I greatly appreciate that you reviewed on quite a few chapters as you read the story... thanks a lot :))) It sounds like you're enjoying this story - wheeee, that makes me a very happy loner :D And yeah, I watch the abridged series too... man, they really got me cracking up! XD I can relate to your comment about looking at decorations - some of the bigger department stores here have big Xmas exhibitions, and Mom always takes me there to have a look, and usually we end up buying at least one thing _-sweatdrops-_ We seriously have too many decorations, too bad that our trees aren't as big as those in America...

**Mistress of the Shadow Heaven**: Eh heh... _-sweatdrops and bows-_ I'm sorry... I know that will happen eventually (you know, really sleeping together), but I will be unable to describe that... _-backs off into a corner-_

**YaoiFan87**: It took me a few tries to get that the way I was aiming for it to be. But judging by what you said, it is okay ;)

* * *

For a couple of seconds, Mokuba felt like just turning away from his bedside table to sleep some more when the alarm clock woke him up the next morning. But as soon as he recalled what day it was, it didn't take him long to blink the fatigue out of his eyes. He looked at the ceiling as he thought the situation over:

It was Christmas Day and therefore time for presents (_'I wonder if Seto ever looked at the catalogue I left on the table one day…'_). It was 6.45 am. The camera lay on a little table next to the door, just waiting to get grabbed by him. All that was left were Seto and Joey.

For a brief moment, Mokuba considered waiting a bit and letting them sleep a little longer – he doubted that they had gone to bed right after him – but his excitement got the better of him, and he jumped out of bed, grabbing the camera on his way out.

He went straight for Joey's room.

"Hey, Joey! Wake up! It's –"

He faltered. The bed was empty and showed absolutely no traces that someone had slept in it that night. Mokuba grinned when he noticed that. If his assumptions were correct, then there was only one other place where he would find his good friend... He whirled around and made a dash to his brother's bedroom. But instead of just barging in like he usually did on Christmas Day, he opened the door as quietly as he could and did his best to keep a hold of himself as he crept up to the bed.

Joey had turned around in his sleep, for now his back was facing Seto. The brunet lay very close to him, so that probably meant… Mokuba went to his brother's side and carefully pulled the covers back a bit. _'Just as I had suspected,'_ he thought: Seto was still loosely hugging Joey around the waist. Since they were still fast asleep, Mokuba decided that it was safe to take a secret picture, and a flash later, the moment was captured on film. Then he put the camera aside and shook his brother's shoulder.

"Seto! Seto! Wake up! It's Christmas!"

A protesting moan was all he got in response before the voice was drowned as the face was buried against Joey's back. Mokuba stifled a giggle and continued his efforts to wake him up.

"C'mon, it's time for presents!"

Finally, Seto opened his eyes sleepily and turned his head just a bit:

"Mokuba… go back to sleep…"

"No way! It's **Christmas**!" the kid repeated a little louder to make sure that the message found its way to the sleep-dazed brain of the elder. "I told you I'd come, it's not **my** fault if you stayed up too late…"

Seto yawned. "Alright… I'm coming, just… one more moment…"

"Just one!" Mokuba agreed and finally let off him. After the sound of his footsteps had left the room, Seto pulled the one next to him a bit closer.

"Mmh… what…?" Joey murmured tiredly.

"Mokuba," Seto answered curtly, closing his eyes again, "He said it's Christmas…"

In a few shifty movements, Joey rolled over so he was facing the other teen again, and a smile danced across his face. "Oh yeah, Christmas… time for presents!"

The mumble he received sounded something like: "Whatever…" Joey laughed a little and then sat up, consequentially breaking Seto's embrace; the other boy frowned at this.

"C'mon, let's go!" he said excitedly, his tiredness leaving him rapidly.

Still somewhat groggily, Seto sat up as well and stifled an upcoming yawn. "Not so fast, puppy. First I want to get dressed…"

"Dressed?!" Joey repeated incredulously. He remembered staying in his pajamas all day long over Christmas, even though he had needed to barricade the door to his room to prevent his father from coming in to yell at him to 'get his lazy ass dressed' and maybe even beat him…

"Yes, dressed," Seto confirmed and stood up, "That's the way we do it every year."

"Mokuba too?"

A nod. "Now that you're living with us, perhaps you'll adapt to our tradition as well…"

"Okay…" Joey agreed, sensing that it was quite pointless to object. He guessed that Seto was one of those people who needed to runthrough a certain morning routine before they could "feel human again". So when the other disappeared into the bathroom, he quickly changed into some simple clothes that were perfect for just staying at home.

Having done that, he went to the window to look outside a bit while he waited for Seto. As he gazed at the snow-covered surroundings beyond the window, he thought about how lucky he was: he had been able to escape the clutches of his father and had found a new home, a place where he really liked to stay. And now he also had a boyfriend; someone who had once been his archenemy…

_'Wow…'_ he thought and sighed a bit.

"Didn't you want presents, pup?" a voice next to him asked.

Joey turned to his gaze away from the window and snapped out of his musings. "Yeah, let's go!"

"You looked thoughtful," Seto said, "Is there something on your mind?" The sigh he had heard just before had him a bit concerned.

"Situation contemplation," Joey replied importantly, holding up one finger. He almost burst out laughing when both of Seto's eyebrows rose in surprise; clearly, he hadn't expected such a response from someone who usually stuck to the basic spoken language, especially at school (much to the occasional dismay of their English teacher). (1)

"You surprise me, honestly," the CEO finally said.

"Just forget whatever you heard! C'mon, let's go!" Joey urged, grabbing Seto's hand and giving it a tug.

"Easy there, puppy, the presents aren't going anywhere…" Seto contradicted amusedly. As he followed the impatient blond downstairs, he noted how the situation looked quite like that of a master restraining his overenthusiastic dog…

Mokuba awaited them in the living room. When they appeared in the doorway – Joey was still eagerly leading Seto – the boy made use of the camera again and thus almost blinded the other two teens for a moment.

"Mokuba!" Seto exclaimed as he blinked a few times to make the colorful spots in his sight go away.

"What? Don't you want to remember this occasion? This **happy** occasion?" he asked innocently.

"Of course I do, but is that a way to greet us?" Seto shot back, a smile tugging at his lips.

His younger sibling laughed and hugged him tightly around the waist. "Sorry… Merry Christmas, Seto!" he said happily.

"And a very merry Christmas to you too, Mokuba," Seto replied quietly as he returned the embrace.

Joey watched them with a grin. Those brother-to-brother moments always got to him… Before he could pursue any such thoughts, the black-haired kid had latched himself onto him:

"Merry Christmas to you too, Joey! I'm so happy to be celebrating with you!"

"Merry Christmas, sport. Without you, I wouldn't be here in the first place…" Joey sighed as he gratefully hugged the youngster.

Seto's mind took a very short trip down memory lane when he heard that. He was glad too that Mokuba had helped him considerably in deciding to let Joey stay; and he had also probably played matchmaker a bit…

"And now: presents!" Mokuba's happy cry put an end to that little trip.

"Go ahead," Seto told him and took over the camera. His brother performed their little ritual: after unpacking the first present, he briefly interrupted his tirade of cheers to let the elder capture the moment with the simple push of a button. When he found the games that went with the console in the present from Joey, he was overjoyed.

"Thanks a lot, guys! We'll play together sometime, won't we?" he asked eagerly.

"Count me in!" Joey declared right away.

"Yay! …Seto?" Mokuba asked hopefully.

"Well…" He looked at Joey, who had a mini-version of Mokuba's pleading look on his face, and of course his brother was using it full-blast. "…Alright, I'm in too."

Mokuba cheered again, then he said: "Don't you guys want to see what **you** got?"

"Hey, yeah!" Joey exclaimed and hurried to pick out their presents from under the tree. The present for Seto… and then he found the one that was for him. He paused for a moment, then noticed something: "Um… Mokuba… there isn't one from you…"

"Wrong," the kid corrected him, "I **do** have something for you, but you won't get it before you've unwrapped your own presents."

"You little devil! Man, you made me curious…!"

Mokuba just winked and waved the remark aside as he gestured to the two parcels in Joey's hands. Dropping any further protests, said teen got up and handed the second present to Seto, who took it with a smile. Then they sat down on the couch and started to unwrap them.

"And now… the big moment is here…"

Seto didn't even bother to look up. "Mokuba, you had better not be filming this…"

"Why not? This is a very special Christmas –"

"Yet you make it seem as if it's the last."

"Oh, so it **isn't** the last?" Mokuba persisted.

As Joey temporarily stopped the process of unwrapping to look at the brunet, Seto met his brother's gaze. For a moment, all was silent, but then the questioned one answered:

"I had better hope not. Or what do you say, puppy?" he addressed Joey directly.

He got a delighted answer: "You said it, Seto!"

Under Mokuba's cries of delight, they continued to unwrap their presents. Joey was done a little bit faster and now looked at a little box. As he opened it, Seto paused to observe his reaction.

Embedded in a cushion of fluffy foam were two things: a plastic card and a key. The plastic card was a credit card, Joey noticed with widened eyes as he recognized the same style of how the letters were imprinted on it like on the card he had borrowed from Seto at the mall. It had a stylish color design of black and a shade of yellow that matched his hair. Dark letters spelled "Joseph Wheeler" along with a long code of numbers.

"Now you have a card of your own, and with it the same access like Mokuba," Seto explained.

"And that means…?" Joey asked.

"A large amount of pocket money every month," Mokuba answered. "About 1000 dollars," he added, seeing the questioning look on the other's face.

"…**1000**?!" Joey repeated faintly. (2)

"I bet that's a lot to you, right?"

"No kidding!" the blond whistled, "Gosh, thanks a lot, Seto!"

"You're welcome. And with this, you can come and go as you please," the CEO said, pointing to the key.

Joey took a closer look at it and noticed the logo of Kaiba Corporation attached to it as a keychain. He didn't need to be told that this was Seto's way of silently saying 'You belong with us now'. He had already opened his mouth to say thank you, but Seto stopped him.

"There's another thing, puppy…"

Indeed: underneath the box, there was a red scarf with black ends. Joey started to laugh.

"What's so funny?" Seto asked, not having expected this.

"If you look at what **you've** got, you'll see," came the answering giggle.

With an ever so slight frown, Seto removed the last bit of wrapping paper from his present and found himself in the opposite situation: a little box was hidden underneath a blue-black scarf. And he understood: they each had black along with the color of their favorite Duel Monster.

"What a coincidence, hmm?" he heard Joey ask. He looked up and saw that the blond had loosely wrapped the scarf around his neck. "Hey, put yours on too!"

Seto opened his mouth to say something, but decided to let it be when Joey simply took the new scarf and quickly put it on him.

"One for the album!" Mokuba's voice chimed in, and Joey grinned right away. The flash came and passed, and Seto wondered what he had looked like just then.

"Brilliant! Now, what's in that box, Seto?"

"There's no need to hurry, Mokuba; it'll be Christmas all day long."

The younger one sighed, but otherwise stayed silent as his brother unpacked the second part of his present. One of his eyebrows rose in anticipation as he picked at the tape that held the rubber foam together. A few moments later, the sculpture finally was revealed. The two Kaiba brothers stared at it wide-eyed, and Joey presumed that that was a good sign.

"Wow… that's very pretty…" Mokuba finally said in wonder.

Seto didn't speak as he noticed the little poem that came along with it. It sounded like something from a corny romance novel or such, but there was more to it than just what looked like a cluster of sappy words to others; after all, Seto thought, Joey had personally picked this from a store, so it obviously had a real meaning to him. And if such words were used quite plainly like now, and not amidst some trivial romance scene, they were much more significant…

"Mokuba's right, puppy," he finally spoke and regarded the teen next to him, "It is indeed pretty. I like it very much."

Joey smiled, happy that his gift was appreciated. "I chose it on purpose. You see; me and that puppy, we're yours. …I love you, Seto." He moved toward the other to kiss him, but when he was halfway there, Seto's lips met his as they kissed. Though it stayed on a rather "innocent" level, the touch was intense nevertheless and thus highly enjoyable for both of them.

When they parted, Seto whispered barely audibly: "I love you too, Joey." (3) Then a moment was taken to just look at each other before their gazes swerved around to Mokuba. The boy was staring at them, his mouth slightly open, but his face radiant with happiness. For a few seconds, there was only silence; then Mokuba jumped up and tried to hug them both at once.

"Finally you've admitted it, big brother! I'm so happy…"

Ah yes, Seto remembered how his sibling had tried to convince him to openly admit his feelings… Now that little "problem" was solved, and in its place was the incredibly strong feeling of togetherness as they were in each other's arms.

"Mokuba, what did **you** get for **us**? I really wanna know…" Joey suddenly said. It was remarkable how much he sounded like a smaller child.

The boy laughed. "Oh yeah, I said you'd get it after looking at your own presents! Sorry!" He hurried back to the tree, reached around the tree holder and presented two thin, rectangular boxes to the other two. He handed Seto the one that was wrapped in blue paper, and the one in golden paper went to Joey. "For now," Mokuba said. It was hard to tell whether he was talking to himself or not. And although they wondered about it, neither the brunet nor the blond said anything. Instead, they busied themselves with discovering what was waiting for them in those two boxes. When they found that out, they were silent for a moment, and then Joey said softly:

"Wow…"

Seto silently agreed. To say the least, he was completely surprised by the gift his brother had for them: they found two bracelets in the simple and yet classy boxes. They were made of silver and had been adorned with two gemstones each. The one in Seto's box had a sapphire, Joey's had a yellow topaz, and both had an emerald as well. (4) Needless to say, the stones were perfectly fashioned, so Seto strongly guessed that the whole thing had been custom-made.

"Mokuba…" he said, looking up.

The youngster smiled genuinely. "You know, the practical thing is that you could even exchange them, if you want. But in any case, you both will always have a stone the other has with you when you wear it."

It made perfect sense: the blue sapphire represented Seto's eyes, and the yellow topaz stood for Joey's hair and/or his eyes as well.

"Man, this is really beautiful… I bet it cost a fortune…" Joey mused as he stared at the fascinating green of the emerald.

"That's confidential information," Mokuba simply answered, "But don't worry about it."

"Thanks a lot, kid. Now, let's see…" Joey's voice decreased to a mutter as he checked out how the bracelet could be fastened. Luckily for him, it was a simple button clasp ("So you won't necessarily need to ask for help when you put it on," Mokuba explained). (5) When he had put it on, he found that Seto had already accomplished that.

"Thank you very much for the lovely present, Mokuba," the brunet said and beckoned him to come for a hug. Mokuba also gladly obliged, of course, when Joey thanked him in the same way.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

When it was almost midday, Joey was in the kitchen and getting the Christmas dinner ready – in the traditional American way, of course. Mokuba had plugged in his new console to the TV and was already eagerly playing one of his games, one that also provided many mysteries that needed to be solved to complete the tasks. Seto had put the diamond puppy in a safer place, and now he was sitting on the couch and watching his brother play. Suddenly, the phone rang. Without looking away from the screen, Seto answered it.

"Kaiba."

_"Hello Kaiba! Merry Christmas!"_ a female voice replied happily.

A moment later, Seto remembered whose voice this was. "Serenity, right?"

_"Yes, exactly!"_

"Ah. Merry Christmas to you too…"

_"Thank you. How are you?"_

He grinned a little. "I can't complain. And you?"

_"Neither can I…"_

"Yay! Big brother, did you see that?" Mokuba asked excitedly just after he had defeated a rather tricky mini-boss.

"I sure did. Well done," Seto replied.

_"That was Mokuba, right?" _Serenity asked.

"Yes. He's playing a new game he got."

"Who're you talking to, Seto?"

"Joey's sister."

"Oh! Hi Serenity!" Mokuba called.

"Caught that?"

_"Of course. Tell him I say hello too."_ Seto did, and then she asked: _"Listen, if my brother is around, could I talk to him, please?"_

"He is. Just a moment."

Seto stood up and went to the kitchen.

"What's up, Seto?" Joey asked as he tossed some carrots into the roasting pan.

"Your sister wants to talk to you," Seto explained, handing him the phone.

"Really? Cool! Hi sis! How are ya?" Joey asked eagerly.

Seto decided to stay a little while to watch the other enthusiastically talk about "the great Christmas he had had". The happiness that shone in his face as he did that made him look even more handsome, the brunet thought. When the conversation topic went from Christmas on to New Year's, Seto forced himself to fully pay attention again.

"…Are you coming to the party at Yug's, sis?" Joey was asking just then. A short pause, then: "Yeah, we'll be there too. …What? …Oh. I'll work on it, don't worry. …You have no idea," he said with a grin. But after what Serenity told him next, the happiness faded from his expression. Seeing the look Seto gave him, he gestured for him to 'just wait, don't worry'.

_"I'm so relieved to hear that you're doing so well, Joey. I was very worried…"_

"Serenity…?"

_"You know, because of what Dad did to you. I couldn't believe that he'd arrange your arrest. And I'm afraid that he might try to do something like that again, and I don't want you to go through that again –"_

"Don't worry, sis, I'll be alright. I don't think he'll come after me again."

He immediately saw how Seto's eyes narrowed in displeasure; there was no doubt that he had understood who they were talking about. Joey tried to appease him by shaking his head a bit, but the look still didn't quite vanish from the other's face.

_"But what if he will anyway?"_

"Serenity, don't even think about that."

At that point, Seto had had enough: he walked over to Joey and said, knowing that she would hear him:

"Don't worry, he won't ever hurt Joey again in any way – I'll personally make sure of that."

That might have calmed Serenity down a little bit, but not entirely. Joey hoped that she would not try and argue with that; he didn't wish to see the holiday's peace get disrupted.

_"I guess you're right, Kaiba."_

"Your brother is safe here, trust me," he repeated.

_"…Okay. I hope to see you at New Year's, then," _she replied quietly, _"Sorry that I was so negative… it's Christmas, after all…"_

"Hey, don't sweat it, sis. Just enjoy the holiday and don't think about Dad, okay?"

_"Yes… you're right. See you, brother. …And you too, Kaiba,"_ she added quickly.

"Bye, Serenity," the two boys answered her in unison, then Joey pushed the button to end the call.

"I'm a bit surprised that she's so worried," Seto remarked.

"It's not your fault or anything. She's had those worries ever since Mom took her away just like that. And because we don't see each other often, she doesn't know that much about how I'm doing."

"Well, I'll keep my promise. Maybe someday she won't worry anymore," Seto said and embraced Joey.

"Yeah, maybe – I sure hope so," the blond muttered as he gladly gave in to Seto's affection. "By the way," he remembered, "About that New Year's celebration at Yugi's… you'll come too, right?"

"I suppose you really want to go, don't you, pup?"

"Sure. Mokuba does, too, just so you know… but we'd like you to come as well."

It didn't take much to see that Joey clearly wanted to attend the party, but on the other hand he also wanted to be with Seto, whose only problem was that he was still a little hesitant about publicly showing how much he liked his new boyfriend…

"I know you probably don't wanna go, but hey, think about the fun we'll have! And the others won't act weirdly or anything if they'd see that we're together!" Joey tried to convince him. When all he got was a thoughtful look, he added with a grin: "You know, you're practically **asking** for Mokuba and me to pull the puppy-eyes move on you… and Mokuba told me that you can't resist **that**!"

"That's fighting dirty," Seto commented with an upcoming grin.

"Maybe, but sometimes those methods are the most effective ones. So, what d'you say?"

"Well…" Seto began, sounding elusive, but in the next moment he watched how Joey started to bring forth the puppy-eyes. He sighed; yes, Mokuba had definitely been right – this was one of his few weak spots. "Alright, puppy, I'll come too."

"Yay! It'll be great, you'll see!" Joey cheered and gratefully kissed him. The sentiment within Seto that could almost be described as ruefulness ebbed away when they kissed, leaving him with the same happy feeling like he had had last night before falling asleep.

After that initial, main kiss, they moved on to a bunch of smaller kisses. For the first time, Joey ran his fingers through Seto's brown hair and found that they were quite soft to the touch – then again, that could be expected, for Seto was almost always well-groomed. The brunet himself had almost sneakily reached under Joey's shirt and was slowly, lightly, caressing his skin. The blond moved a bit closer, and they were just starting to deepen the kisses again –

"Big brother! Hey, could you help me with– …**Oh**."

Seto slowly looked to his brother and wondered what he was thinking, especially since he was quite sure that a faint flush of excitement was still visible on his cheeks. "Yes, Mokuba?"

"Oh, never mind. It looks like you're quite busy…" the boy grinned.

Seto wondered when he had last looked so mischievous. "No, really, what do you want me to help you with?"

"Just a little riddle…"

With a smile, the elder Kaiba drew his hands back from their place beneath Joey's shirt and then gently removed the other's hands from his hair. "I'll help you, of course. Besides, I wouldn't want to be responsible for preventing the preparation of dinner." In response to the slightly resigned look on Joey's face, he whispered: "Don't worry, puppy, we'll continue this later, I promise."

"I'll take you up on that," Joey replied.

"I don't doubt that you will."

Seto kissed him fleetingly again before leaving the kitchen with Mokuba. Joey sighed and went back to preparing dinner. And although he managed to concentrate fairly well, his mind kept going back to thinking about how good that tiny bit of making out had felt…

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

"Eew, what's **this**?" Mokuba asked as he poked at something green in a smaller plate. The little white and yellow pieces were egg white and yolk, that he knew, but the "green stuff"? Perhaps another one of his brother's attempts to find a vegetable for him that he'd actually enjoy eating…?

"How often do I have to tell you that something new isn't disgusting just because you don't know what it is?" Seto scolded mildly.

"You try it first, then. You're the older one," Mokuba told him.

"I am aware of that, little brother. And besides: I've had this before, and I recall that it was quite good."

"Really? Then what is it?" Mokuba asked, giving the stuff another doubtful poke with his fork.

"You shouldn't play with your food," Seto reminded him first, "Anyway… I had this at some business dinner a long while ago, so I don't remember what it's called. But it's good."

"Joey, what is this?" Mokuba asked, pointing to the smaller plate.

The blond, who had just brought the stuffing to the table, didn't look offended at all – he remembered being equally skeptic towards most vegetables as a young boy. "That's lamb's lettuce. I didn't have it often, but I loved the stuff." (6)

"**Lamb's** lettuce?" Mokuba repeated, an eyebrow raised.

"Just try it, Mokuba," Seto sighed exasperatedly.

"Yes, Mom," the boy retorted in a falsely sweet voice, but obeyed nevertheless in order not to tax his brother's patience unnecessarily.

'_Well,'_ he thought as he chewed slowly, _'it's not like I'd need to call the health insurance or anything… still, a vegetable is a vegetable!'_

"I see that you're still alive," Seto remarked sarcastically.

"But only just," Mokuba joked.

"I suppose you'd rather prefer a piece of **this**?" Joey suggested, prodding the turkey with a large two-pointed fork.

"Yes please!" Mokuba agreed brightly, pushing his plate a little closer – at least **part** of Seto's efforts to teach him fine table manners were paying off.

Said older brother just shook his head as he continued to busy himself with the lettuce. He planned to eventually ask Joey for a bit of help in changing his brother's eating habits…

"You know what I forgot? A bone plate," Joey suddenly said after a while.

"Stay put, puppy; I'll go and get one," Seto told him and stood up.

The moment the brunet left the table, Mokuba gestured wildly to Joey. Luckily for the kid, the blond caught on quickly and nodded. Trying to move fast but not make much noise, he took the youngster's plate and transferred half of the lettuce onto his own plate before handing it back. Mokuba had barely set the plate back down when Seto returned – and of course the CEO's hawk-like gaze immediately noticed two things: the falsely innocent looks on their faces as well as a certain now half-empty lettuce plate. Well, he could play that little game too…

"You know, Mokuba, if you like it, you could have just told me."

"What?"

"I mean that you needn't have waited until I turned my back on you to eat it. To see that you've eaten half of your salad in such little time, that is quite a surprise," he added as he sat down.

Mokuba cast a quick glance at Joey, who shrugged. Yet they both doubted to have gotten away with it – Seto was way too smart to fall for such a common trick, right?

"Well…" The youngster fidgeted a bit. He was caught in a dilemma: should he admit having cheated his way out of eating a large part of the salad, or should he just keep quiet? His unease just confirmed Seto's suspicions; right now, the elder wondered whether his brother would confess by free will or not… That question was answered when he caught Joey's eye. His boyfriend had a rather pleading look in his eyes and additionally shook his head. Seto understood, nodded curtly and then said calmly:

"I know that you made some kind of deal with Joey to avoid eating the salad."

Mokuba didn't reply and instead kept his gaze fixated on his plate as if attempting to perform telekinesis on it. A hand laid itself on his shoulder.

"I'm not angry with you."

Now Mokuba looked up hesitantly. "R-Really?"

Seto nodded slowly. "But I want you to promise me your cooperation in the new year – this constant evasion of things that are good for you really has to stop. Okay?"

Mokuba felt very relieved. After all, he was familiar with the at times thin line between jokes that his brother liked or disapproved of…

"Okay, big brother."

"You'll help me, won't you, Joey?" Seto asked, turning to the blond, whose look resembled Mokuba's.

"Yeah, sure," the other replied with a cheerful grin.

The thought was rather amusing to Mokuba, for he knew that even though Seto would make sure that Joey would take the "job" seriously, sooner or later the carefree attitude of his friend might spare him some "lessons". And which twelve-year-old was interested in rabbit food, anyway? (7)

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Joey was almost surprised at how natural it felt to be following Seto back to the same room he had spent the previous night in – that is, not his own. But only **almost**; after all, there had been this overwhelming closeness between them ever since dinner. Mokuba and Joey had played one or two of the new games, both sitting on the floor and at either side of Seto, who had made himself comfortable on the couch. Sometimes as if by accident, though most of the time clearly intentionally, he had laid his hand on Joey's head, fondly petting the stubbornly untidy hair. There had been no doubt that had Joey really been a dog, he would have wagged his tail like mad. Even though the brunet hadn't participated in the little gaming session, they had had a wonderful time, and not too much longer after Mokuba had gone to his room (though not to sleep, and rather to play some more), the two older teens were on their way as well. And like the younger Kaiba, they too weren't thinking of going to sleep right away.

"So, puppy, is there anything you want to do before New Year's? After all, we're booked out on that evening, thanks to you," Seto said when they entered the room.

"What, you mean that you'll be here in the next few days till then?" Joey asked.

"You must have been thinking otherwise."

"I kinda thought… you know, your work…"

"I figure that I can afford to take a few days off until after New Year's. But then it will be back to normal, for you and for me."

"Don't remind me," Joey sighed, "If there ever was a time to have two or three feet of snow so that school would be cancelled, it might as well be now…!"

"Vacation will be here again sooner than you think – after all, there will only be three weeks to go when school starts again," Seto reminded him as he went to the bathroom to brush his teeth.

"**Test** weeks!" Joey complained as he followed the other and watched him from the doorway, "Test weeks! Three weeks chock-a-block full of tests!" He paused shortly, then added resentfully: "I'll fail at least half of them, wanna bet?"

Seto spat a mouthful of toothpaste into the sink. "No, I don't. I'll help you study, if you want…"

"You'd do that?" Joey exclaimed, wondering where on earth the CEO would find the time for all of that – working, studying, and tutoring a "helpless case", as he "fondly" referred to himself as.

Seto merely chuckled; that little display of amazement was rather amusing to him. "You still haven't answered my question, puppy… but why don't you go get changed and we'll talk about it when I'm done here?" he asked before continuing to brush his teeth.

"Gotcha," the blond complied, cheerful once again now that the subject of school was dropped.

While he put on his pajamas, he allowed himself to look around the room a bit more closely; yesterday, he had been so busy with talking to Seto that he hadn't found the time to get a good look at what was around him. Between the bathroom door and the large window stood a chest of drawers, and on the top shelf stood a few things that sparked Joey's interest. There was the diamond puppy he had given to Seto today. Just looking at it made Joey smile as he remembered what had happened after Seto had gotten a good look at it… Next to it was a little figurine of a Blue Eyes White Dragon; God knew where that came from, though the teen guessed that Mokuba might have obtained it for his brother. Two portraits flanked those two things: on one side, the Halloween party photo – ah, memories! – and on the other side a portrait of Seto and Mokuba. It looked as if they were at a theme park or something, and that thought amused Joey, for he just couldn't imagine the CEO being at such a place. And finally, adorning the wall next to the cabinet, was the poster he had given the brunet for his birthday.

Two hands laid themselves upon his shoulders, and a voice said quietly right next to his ear: "Lost in space, puppy?"

Joey grinned – he remembered being asked that same question, but back then they had been on the swings, still getting used to each other, and of course minus the pet name.

"Maybe," he joked, "Say, where were you on that picture with Mokuba?"

"I was invited to the opening ceremony of a theme park, and I was permitted to bring along a guest. And as you see, I chose my brother."

"Who else?" Joey said with a shrug.

"Next time, it might be **you**," Seto told him before he kissed his neck, which made the blond give a soft moan. "I told you that we'd continue what we started earlier on," he whispered.

"Then let's do just that," Joey replied and turned around to kiss his boyfriend.

Seto snickered and slowly let his hands wander toward the hem of Joey's pajama top. He kissed him on the lips again before going back to "attacking" his neck. Like last time, the other responded with a delighted moan.

_'Note to self: the puppy is sensitive at the neck,'_ Seto thought slyly. This particular form of interaction between them was new, but if someone had asked them just then how it was, both would have said that it was incredibly exciting.

One of Joey's hands had tried to get a hold of Seto's arm when the other teen had started to smother his neck with kisses, but somehow it had mainly only grabbed the fabric of the silky shirt. As another intense kiss was placed on his skin, he tugged at the sleeve in a demanding manner. Leave it to Seto how he'd understand that…

Slowly, the elder Kaiba made him retreat to the bed's edge. As they stood a moment longer, Joey quickly thought about what would happen next – and when that next step was initiated, he put up some resistance and managed to turn around just as he was being pushed down. Since he was still holding on tightly to Seto's clothing, the brunet was the one whose back first made contact with the mattress, and this certainly didn't accord with his personal plans.

For a moment, they paused and just looked at each other, the surprise on behalf of this resistance act being evident in Seto's eyes. But then he smirked.

"Sorry, puppy." And without further explanation, he grabbed Joey by the shoulders and rolled over; this caused him to fall onto the mattress as well, only this time, he was pinned beneath Seto, whose eyes were glinting with triumph. "Things will be going **my** way…" he whispered rather seductively.

"I'm still allowed to oppose those things, though, right?" Joey asked with a grin, both eyebrows raised.

"You may. But always keep in mind that your chances of success will be very limited."

"I guess I can put up with that." Before Seto could reply, Joey had kissed him again. The CEO remembered that he had actually wanted to finish the little talk about what his boyfriend wanted to do until New Year's, but the way things were going, that would have to wait just a little while longer…

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Later, they both lay shirtless in each other's arms and let the surge of excitement slowly pass before they would be able to go to sleep.

"Seto?" Joey mumbled.

"Hmm?" the brunet asked as he enjoyed the warmth of the other's body.

"You know about what you asked me earlier? Well, I wanna go to the park... hang around there, it's always very nice in the winter…"

"Okay, puppy. You name the time, and we'll go," Seto agreed and kissed his forehead.

The blond yawned and nestled his head to Seto's chest, then whispered: "I love you."

"I love you too."

And this time, he thought as he closed his eyes, this time he would take his time with getting up, for although most people wouldn't guess it, he loved to take his time in the morning, and that was exactly what he did when he had the chance…

* * *

(1) Don't ask me what I was thinking when I came up with this. I probably just liked the way that sounded... "Situation contemplation." God, I'm totally becoming FUBAR, I guess ;) (see profile for the meaning of that acronym)

(2) _-groans-_ I sure made myself jealous of him when I came up with this idea... Imagine, 1000 bucks to spend every month... _-gets lost in dreams-_

(3) I was on the train on my way home when I wrote this... and God, I felt so happy when I looked over this little part again that I wanted to squeal! _-blush-_ But there were other people around, what a shame... _-sigh-_

(4) Ah, wouldn't that be something pretty to get? I love gemstones...! I once spent over 100 Swiss francs in one go when I went to a special little shop that sold all kinds of stones... um, yeah, as you can see, I really just love them, and that's all there is to this point in the fic...

(5) Aren't some of those bracelets really frustrating in that matter? The one I've lost in the meantime (_-cries-_ it was from Macy's in NY, damn that bastard cleaning lady who stole it!) was a real pain the arse, to be quite frank, that's why I always try to buy bracelets with simple button clasps...

(6) Yay, my favorite type of salad aside from iceberg lettuce :) I sure was surprised at this translation of "Nüsslisalat" (although Dad's American, he always called it "Nüsslisalat" too)... and yes, I did a bit of research to find out whether it is expensive or not (I never really cared, actually, but I found out that it is... do you guys eat this stuff often?)...

(7) I really liked this description of fruits and vegetables - the quote comes from Vernon Dursley in the 2nd Harry Potter book...

Aw man, now I'm really wishing that it were already Xmas! _-pouts-_ Although, now that I think about it, maybe it's okay that there's still a while to go, I have no blooming idea what I want this year (except a life, maybe?)... And geez, it's only the middle of November, and I've already been singing Christmas songs in public (but only when I was sure that nobody was around or watching me, mind you, I'm not that shameless)! Good thing that we've gotten a lot of snow this week, now if only it would stick to the ground... _-is going insane with Christmas anticipation-_


	17. Chapter 17

Whew! Another chapter done... sorry it took so long, but on one hand I was quite busy (blasted school!), and on the other hand, I was suffering from a temporary writer's block (fortunately, I was inspired again and could continue - I owe that to the giant Xmas tree in front of the Coop)...

Aside from the writing, I also did a bit of brainstorming (I just wanted to come up with a few more ideas), but depending on what you think of this chapter, I'll decide whether to make use of some of those ideas (just notify me if you want to hear a suggestion or two) or if I'll try and find an ending to this... it's up to you. I really am curious to hear your opinions...

**darkgryphonmage**: _-wipes forehead-_ Wow, I'm glad you liked it. I swear that if there had been an accurate animation to the letters in some text parts, honey would've been dripping off 'em... that's my full blast of cuteness to you ;) Aw, it's so kawaii how much you guys like Mokuba... I'm glad I did that well (I think it's safe for me to say that) :)))

**YaoiFan87**: _-cheers-_ Yay, I'm glad you liked it! If Christmas really were like that... _-dreamy sigh-_ (you see, with my family, there's always at least one nasty argument, despite repeated efforts to keep things peaceful)

**Riharu**: Totally... the sad thing is, even when Xmas really is here, there are surprisingly many people who aren't in the spirit in any way (they really piss me off with their constant bitching about the holiday, though I could really care less as long as I get around to celebrating it in whatever way I want to)... Thanks for the compliment! Please tell me what you think... I'll try and come up with a few more ideas...

**Frathworth and Butts**: I guess you think that I captured the element "cute" of Xmas quite well, right? Ah, such a wonderful time of year...! Oh yeah, aside from the message I sent to you, there's something I gotta add: I think I've read too much as well, 'cause I've noticed that I really don't give that much of a you-know-what about what boys think of me anymore; all I care about is escaping to my little world where I keep dreaming about these hot anime guys being together _-sigh-_ I'm officially hopeless ;)

* * *

On the following day, it snowed heavily and a fierce wind blew through the streets of Domino. Whoever didn't absolutely **have** to go anywhere stayed at home.

"There's no way in hell that I'm going outside into **that**," Joey declared when he sat up, stretched and looked out of the window that morning. So much for wanting to go to the park…

"Then just stay right here," Seto replied drowsily.

Joey grinned; the sight of Seto Kaiba lying there with the blankets wrapped firmly around him (it made him look cutely like a child) made him want to laugh out loud. Not in the mocking sense, however, but rather with adornment, for the blond really adored this other side to Seto, it was as simple as that.

"I wouldn't have guessed that you'd be the type to stay in bed for so long," he commented, stretching yet again because that felt so darn good. When he looked back at the other boy, Seto just stared at the other pillow and retorted:

"Right now, I wouldn't have been able to get up early anyway… I still feel tired from everything that's happened recently."

"You mean before I could come back?" Joey asked as he lay down again.

"Yes. All of that plus work and school… I wish it weren't so, but I have my limits too. However, it was worth it," he concluded as he looked back at Joey again.

"It's okay to have limits. No one expects you to never tire and be unbreakable… No one who's alive now, I mean," Joey corrected himself when he saw the spark of hatred and bitterness that surfaced when the young CEO thought of or was reminded of his stepfather. "I'm sorry…"

"You don't need to be. …I just hate him so much…" Seto muttered.

Wishing that he could take back what he had said before, Joey reached around the blankets and found Seto's hand. It was all tensed up.

"Sometimes, when I gave Mokuba a hard time again, I wondered what would have been if he hadn't been a part of my life…" Seto continued with a blank expression.

"This is the way it is. Hey, I used to wonder how things would have been if Mom and Dad hadn't broken up and me and Serenity could have grown up together a little longer. But I stopped thinking about that too much – wishful thinking doesn't get us anywhere," Joey said with a sigh at the end.

"I know. I haven't thought like that in a while, even though I… I'm still not quite through dealing with **him**." Seto made no effort to suppress the bitterness that dominated his voice. He blamed himself (though mostly subconsciously) for still not having gotten over his hatred for his stepfather yet; and although he could afford almost anything nowadays, he wished that he could have grown up more pleasantly – he didn't dare think about what he would be like if he hadn't had his brother, who always reminded him of what he had been like before their adoption and had prevented him from completely losing that attitude.

"Maybe it would help if you'd talk about that with somebody – I'll listen to you, if you want," Joey told him.

Seto was quiet as he closed his eyes for a moment, and when he spoke again, part of the troubled expression faded to make way for the ghost of a smile. "Thank you, puppy. But right now, I'd rather just forget it. I'm not ready yet…"

"I don't want to push you or anything," Joey protested.

"I know you don't. I really appreciate your compassion."

"Anytime."

The brunet pulled his hand (which had relaxed in the meantime) back to his chest. Since it was still clasped over his own, Joey's hand came along, and a small smile crept onto Seto's lips when the other warm hand made contact with him. The reminiscent notions from earlier on ebbed away, and he felt content again.

"Hi guys! Good morning… or rather: good almost-afternoon!" a voice said from the door. Then (again): "…**Oh**."

"Hello Mokuba," Seto replied, his voice sounding almost normal again.

"Morning, champ. You're not thinking of going into that weather, are you?" Joey asked.

For a short moment, Mokuba just stared; what else was to be done upon seeing Joey lying in his brother's bed without his pajama top (Mokuba thought that in that case, his sibling wasn't wearing one, either, but he kept that to himself)?

"Um… no!" The astonishment in his voice disappeared as he asked back slyly: "I'm not **disturbing** you by any chance, am I?"

Joey blushed while Seto said (completely by reflex): "No, why?"

"Oh, just… because," Mokuba answered innocently, "Is today another 'PJ day', big brother?"

"**Another**…?" Joey wondered and rolled over to look at the other.

Figuring that his brother would elaborate, Seto quickly glanced at the window – outside, the weather appeared to have gotten a bit worse. Definitely a stay-at-home day.

"Sometimes – rarely, though – big brother decides to stay in his pajamas all day long. I do that a bit more often than him… What about you? Do you ever do that?" Mokuba asked after explaining the meaning of that "another".

"Yeah," Joey replied and sat up before briefly roughing up his hair – that was something he did quite often in the morning because it simply felt good, "Especially when it's Christmas… and when I just feel kinda lazy on certain weekends," he added with a sheepish grin, "So, what do you do on such a day?"

"Whatever we want." Mokuba shrugged. "Watch movies, play something…"

"A movie sounds good," Joey remarked.

"I'll go see if I can find a good one, if you want."

"Be right with you, sport."

"Okay!" The youngster left again, and Joey fumbled beneath the blankets for a moment as he searched for his pajama top. In the end, he didn't only find his, but Seto's as well.

"You're coming too, right?" he asked as he put his pajama top on again.

"Yes… I just hope that he won't pick a cartoon," Seto answered and reached out to grab his own shirt. But in the last moment, it was yanked out of his reach when Joey jumped out of bed. "Hey, give that back!" he exclaimed, sitting up.

"Oh yeah? Come and get it!" Joey challenged him, backing off toward the door.

"You're asking for it, puppy," Seto smirked, narrowing his eyes as he got up.

"Yep, I sure am!" the blond shot back gleefully, then turned around and walked out of the room, the prized shirt draped casually over his shoulder.

Seto chuckled as he followed him. How vivacious the other teen was, there was so much puppyish behavior about him – it was one of the differences between him and the CEO, who guessed that that was one reason why he had eventually fallen in love with him…

"You don't seem to be with the program," Joey commented from where he stood at the top of the stairs, fiddling with the "stolen" shirt.

"Then let me assure you that you have my full attention now," Seto contradicted, staring intently at him to emphasize his point.

"Are you guys coming?" Mokuba's voice sounded out. Joey looked down to see the boy heading for the living room, holding a large bowl of popcorn in his hands. Seeing the food made his stomach growl impatiently, and he made the same mistake again – the mistake to not pay attention.

Seto made use of the momentary distraction by walking up to him and simply taking his shirt back. It was as easy as stealing something right in front of someone who was asleep. He chuckled, amused by the blond's frustration over his mess-up.

"Now who isn't with the program, hmm?" he asked pointedly as he put on the shirt.

"No fair, I was distracted!"

"You won't go all grumpy on me now, will you?"

Joey swore that he had never before seen such a strange look in someone's eyes before – it was kind, yet it tolerated no protest.

"Guess I won't…"

"What are you doing up there? Seto, I'll choose a cartoon soon…!" Mokuba's voice drifted up to them from the living room.

"He's serious, right?" Joey asked, jabbing his thumb at the room where they were being awaited.

"Yes. Once, he made me watch this **cartoon**," (Joey noticed the exasperated stress the brunet put on that word) "I didn't bother remembering what it was called, but it was… not so pleasant for me," he recalled as they walked down the stairs.

"Translation: it was horrible. I get it…"

"Alright, we're here. Are we too late?" Seto asked when they entered the living room.

"Just on time, big brother. Is 'Home Alone' okay with you guys?"

"Perfect!" Joey agreed enthusiastically.

"That sounds good," Seto told him. He had seen the movie before – Mokuba watched either that one or the other one (sometimes both) almost every year (1) – and he thought it was quite funny.

Happy that his suggestion had been accepted, Mokuba loaded the movie into the DVD player, and while he took a seat in a comfortable chair, Seto and Joey decided to settle down on a couch.

The movie had only been running for about twenty minutes or so when Seto noticed that he was nodding off as it took him longer and longer to open his eyes again. It wasn't because the movie was boring – there were plenty of funny sequences in it – but he just felt so… **tired**. That he had taken the days between Christmas and New Year's off was quite convenient, as it seemed, and he decided to catch up on the rest he was lacking so he would feel fit at the party as well as when he'd go to the park with Joey. He was sure that the others would understand – after all, Mokuba had repeatedly tried to convince him that he lacked proper rest and would certainly be the last one to complain. Nodding to himself, Seto closed his eyes and blotted out the sounds of the television; and in a matter of minutes, he had almost fallen asleep.

The scene with the pizza boy who was scared away by the sounds of shooting from a movie had Mokuba and Joey laughing so much that their sides began to hurt. When they started to get a hold of themselves again, Joey looked over at Seto, for he was sure that he hadn't heard a sound from the other (which was practically impossible, in his opinion: the previous scene had been way too funny) and realized that he was either asleep or very close to that. He grinned, then lightly touched the elder Kaiba's shoulder.

"Seto?"

"Mmh… what is it?" came a very low mumble. The blue eyes remained closed.

"Don't you like the movie?"

"It's fine…"

"…You wanna go back to bed?"

The CEO shook his head just a bit. Tired or not, he wanted to stay here…

"Then at least make yourself comfortable instead of sleeping while sitting up straight." When he got no reaction to what he had just said, Joey gently seized the other teen's arm with the intention to simply make him lean against his shoulder. Before that could happen, however, Seto shifted in an own attempt for more comfort and ended up lying down so that Joey's lap was his "pillow". He fidgeted a bit until he had found a perfect position, then he finally fell asleep.

Joey stared down at him. That had certainly turned out differently from what he had expected… but of course he didn't protest. He caught Mokuba's eye and thought that the boy looked somewhat relieved.

"He must be really tired. I mean, **really** tired," Joey said quietly.

"Yeah. He spends way too much time working without getting a decent amount of sleep. I tried to get him to change his sleeping habits, but he just insisted that that wasn't necessary. But I'm glad that he's admitted to himself that he needs to sleep."

"Hey, about the movie… maybe it'd be better if we watch something else; I don't wanna wake him up again just because of laughing," Joey explained.

"Sure, that's a good idea. I checked the TV program in advance for specials. Any preferences?" Mokuba asked as he stopped the movie and switched back to the TV.

"Just nothing too funny."

"Gotcha."

They settled for cartoons once again. Mokuba volunteered to get them drinks so that Joey wouldn't need to get up, and the blond was grateful for that little favor. Later, at lunchtime, they helped themselves to yesterday's leftovers – Joey hesitated a bit at first, wondering what Seto would eat once he'd awaken again, but Mokuba told him that it wasn't a problem; his brother wouldn't need much or anything special to be satisfied…

When Seto woke up, he immediately noticed how he was feeling much better. He decided to try and listen to Mokuba the next time he would be told to get some proper rest. Sighing contentedly, he turned around just a bit and found himself looking up at Joey, who had been gazing at the screen, but now looked down at him.

"Hi again, Seto. Man, you slept like a rock!"

"I wasn't aware that I was in so much need of it. But I feel much better now."

"That's good to hear."

"I guess I missed out on the movie…"

"Hey, we understand, it's okay."

"What's on now?" Seto wondered and turned his head to look at the screen. It was a cartoon, but it was one of the very, very few that he actually didn't mind so much: Animal Farm. (2) Luckily, it was still pretty much at the beginning. "Mokuba, why are you watching this?" he asked.

"Ah, you're awake, big brother! Slept well?"

"Very. Now, what made you watch this?"

"There's this kid in my class, he said that his older brother said that it's sort of educational, and I've been wondering what's behind that…"

"This is educational?" Joey repeated, looking back at the talking animals.

"Indeed. By the way, Mokuba, you should know that this isn't exactly a happy movie…"

"I'll be okay," the youngster assured him.

"What exactly is educational about this?" Joey asked.

"Patience, puppy. You might not believe this, but I'd like to wait until a commercial comes before I explain."

Joey's eyes widened in surprise; so there **was** a cartoon that Seto Kaiba liked after all?! The others would never believe this... He decided to comply with the other's request, though, and therefore remained silent until a commercial interrupted the film.

"Okay, I have two questions: the whole 'educational' thing about this, and how come you like this – I mean, it's a **cartoon**."

"First: shall I sit up?"

"No, it's fine," Joey told him honestly.

"Alright…"

Before he could begin his explanation, Mokuba left the chair he was sitting in and sat down next to Joey. He grinned happily at his older brother, who said:

"This story actually shows how the reign of one Joseph Stalin came to be and what that regime was like. Theories suggested parallels between certain animals and people who really lived when that happened." He named them a few possible examples, though he was aware that until the subject would be covered at school, it most likely wouldn't make much sense, especially to Mokuba. "In a couple of years, you'll probably talk about that in history," he told his brother, then added: "Joey, we might get to this subject soon, and I wouldn't be surprised if we would get asked to read this story."

"Oh. And you like it because…?" Joey inquired.

"Gozaburo introduced me to it." Seto frowned shortly. "He reminds me very much of Napoleon – so ruthless and cruel, not caring about anyone or anything besides his power and success. And that was the main thing he taught me: to be as ruthless as required to achieve set goals. But I couldn't **quite** fulfill that expectation of his, thanks to Mokuba…" He cast his brother a small, grateful smile. "But in response to the question… It was a very welcome change to the oftentimes grey literature I had to read. I've always liked the story itself, but I don't like certain memories associated with it…" he finished, hoping that he had said enough.

"Wow, that sounds interesting… I wanna know everything about it that you know, big brother!" Mokuba said excitedly.

"In case you'll deal with that subject in school, I will help you with it if you'd still want me to," Seto promised him. The younger Kaiba nodded eagerly.

"Gee, you might not believe it, but I'm actually kinda looking forward to that topic too," Joey said thoughtfully.

"How come?" Seto asked. As far as he could tell, Joey really wasn't fond of school, let alone the subjects (except physical education).

"This time, I might have an advantage…" Joey explained with a wink.

"With Seto's help, you'll ace it easily!" Mokuba declared.

"We'll see; in the end, it all depends on **you**, pup," Seto reasoned as he shortly poked Joey in the stomach, making his boyfriend jump a bit, and the look on the blond's face made it impossible to resist a rather malicious grin.

"I think **someone's** had **too much** sleep…!" Joey said pointedly. He had a look in his eyes that spelled "payback" in capital letters.

"Is it **my** fault if you're so sensitive?" Seto asked tauntingly.

"Gloat all you want – I know that you have the same weakness, so don't make me take advantage of that!" Joey threatened.

"You wouldn't," Seto contradicted smugly.

"Oh yeah –"

"Yay, the commercial's over!" Mokuba exclaimed, his grey eyes glued to the screen again.

Now that he felt rested again, Seto sat back up, though he openly admitted to have liked the previous position he had been in.

"I'll get you later," he heard Joey whisper.

"Try me," Seto retorted.

Joey fidgeted – oh, how he wanted to do just that right **now**! But because he wanted to watch the movie too, he fitfully held back the urge to pounce on Seto on the spot and instead focused on the TV.

Even when the movie was over, he still didn't take revenge quite yet, for Mokuba said glumly:

"That was sad… especially the part with Boxer…"

"That was the way it went, Mokuba: when you couldn't work anymore, you became dispensable, no matter how loyal you were. You can take it from me that life in the proletariat was not easy." Seto snuck a glance at Joey, who was really impatient now. Turning back to his brother, he added: "I wonder if you'd mind getting me a coffee… the usual, of course…"

"Not at all!" Mokuba assured him, sensing the tension between the others. Maybe they would be up for a few games after sorting out the little issue of payback! As he went to the kitchen, he reminded himself to take his time with making the coffee…

An outburst of laughter from the living room made him grin from ear to ear. When the coffee was ready, he took the cup to the living room, but just stood there quietly for a while, giggling as he watched his older brother have another tickle fight with Joey, though this time without any awkwardness. If that wasn't harmony, what was?

He had no idea why, but Mokuba suddenly looked at the black liquid in the cup and idly wondered how come Seto loved the stuff so much. There was one other way of finding out besides asking him… He took a little sip of it and immediately regretted that. The coffee just sat there innocently as the boy made a face at it.

'_Ugh, it's bitter! How on earth can Seto stand drinking this…?!'_

He continued to stare with revulsion at the drink until he heard his sibling ask:

"Mokuba, why are you giving my coffee a death glare?"

He looked up and saw his brother giving him a quizzical look, his brown hair wildly disheveled and his cheeks rather pink from the fight that still wasn't quite decided yet. Joey looked like a guy who had just finished a marathon race.

"Because it's incredibly gross, Seto," the kid answered truthfully in a manner-of-fact tone and with a downright innocent look.

Seto had a look on his face that said 'I beg your pardon?' (after all, his brother was insulting his favorite beverage as if he were patiently explaining that the Earth orbits the sun and not the other way around), and Joey started laughing all over again, doubling over because his sides still hurt from the laughter he had intended to recover from.

"Oh, shut up!" Seto scolded playfully and gave him a little shove.

To his slight confusion, this caused the blond to laugh even harder. It was the first time in a long while that Joey found himself at the mercy of a laughing fit, and in that state, just about **anything** was funny. (3)

The laughter was contagious, for Mokuba hurried to set the cup down on a little commode so it wouldn't spill, and then he laughed along. Seto looked at both of them shortly, thinking that especially Joey might die soon if he'd laugh much longer at this rate.

"Whatever you two had, you've had too much of it," he said decisively.

The gods seemed to be against any reason he tried to bring back to them, for the others only laughed even louder. Sometimes it almost sounded more like howling than anything else.

"What? Was I that funny?" he wondered. Still laughing, Joey looked at him and Seto noticed tears in the amber eyes. He had never seen anyone laugh till they cried… "Puppy, you're alright, aren't you?" he asked reassuringly. _'Better safe than sorry,'_ he thought.

I'm s-sorry… I-it's just… y-you're… it's… so f-funny…!" Joey managed to stammer before his giggles disabled him of saying anything more. Now the tears poured from his eyes, though the laughter didn't cease.

"Calm down, Joey…" Seto attempted to appease him. He was sure that the other's sides must be hurting badly when he saw how the hands clutched them tightly.

"God, I-I wanna stop…!" Joey whimpered. It was rather weird to hear such a plea between two laughs…

"Easy does it…" Seto muttered and grabbed one of the other boy's hands. As he held it, he looked over to Mokuba, who was thankfully recovering from the fit. Gasping for air, he held on to the commode as he stood again. He had been quite close to tears too…

Meanwhile, Joey's own fit had pretty much succumbed, and now he just lay there outstretched on the carpet, panting to fully catch his breath again.

"I've honestly never heard anyone laugh so much before," Seto told him, shaking his head.

"Yeah, well… it's been ages since I last laughed like that… sorry," Joey wheezed.

"Scratch the apology." As confusing as it had been at first, Seto had liked to listen to that laughter… a laugh that wasn't faked in the least and did nothing less than please him.

"Big brother?"

"Yes, Mokuba?"

"Here's your coffee…" the kid said and handed him the cup. As he watched the elder drink it, he grimaced, remembering the nasty, bitter taste he still needed to get rid of. On the floor, Joey gave a weak chuckle.

"Don't you start again," Seto said, holding the cup away just to make sure that it wouldn't get spilled in case a certain blond would accidentally knock it out of his hands in another fit.

"Too… exhausted… don't worry…"

The brunet smiled and remained where he was on the floor, watching over his boyfriend's recovery. Mokuba returned to the kitchen to get himself something proper to drink. Over all the commotion, the bad weather was forgotten – but who needed to go outside when they were having so much fun together inside?

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

The next day's weather was much better, so Joey decided to go to the park on that day. Mokuba stayed at home, for he was completely engrossed in his new video games.

"You're quite okay with this? You know, because of publicity…" Joey explained as they headed toward the park. The skies overhead were grey, but there was little to no wind, so there was no risk of a storm.

"Maybe those vultures called paparazzi are at home pestering their families instead of other people," Seto said with mild hope. He got a bark of laughter for that comment, then continued seriously: "For now, it would probably be better to just give them the impression of being friends."

"Works with me," Joey agreed with a shrug.

For a while, they simply walked along the park's paths, enjoying the cold, crisp air which seemed to dull the laughter and the shrieks of children who were building snowmen or having mini-snowball fights. Most people looked happy, but some appeared to have had a bad Christmas (like a young woman who was weeping bitterly on a bench).

After an indefinable amount of time, Seto was just about to ask Joey if he wanted to go to a café when the blond spoke first:

"Hey Yug'!"

Seto looked in the direction the other boy was waving, and sure enough, Yugi was approaching, though having broken into a run meanwhile.

"Hi Joey! Hi Kaiba! How are you?" he asked cheerfully once he had stopped before them.

"A-Okay, buddy. And you? …Wait a minute, where's Yami?" Joey wondered, for the smaller boy was rarely seen without the Pharaoh close by.

"I'm fine too. Oh, Yami's back at the shop… he refuses to do anything else before solving a little puzzle."

"A puzzle?" Seto finally spoke as he raised an eyebrow at the boy whom he had dubbed "the midget".

"Yeah. Hey, how about If we go inside or something to talk a little bit?"

"Sounds good. Seto?"

"Whatever."

"Lead the way, Yug'."

A few minutes later, they had settled down in a pleasant, small café. Joey and Yugi both ordered a hot chocolate while Seto went with his usual black, sugarless coffee.

"That's a nice coat, by the way," Yugi commented.

"Thanks. I found it when I was looking for presents. This was one the best Christmases ever!"

Seto held back a sigh and sipped his coffee while the others had a bit of small talk. He let his thoughts wander some ways until he refocused on the conversation, hoping that the topic of Christmas was over; after all, he was quite curious to find out what puzzle was occupying Yami so much that he wouldn't accompany his lighter half on an outing. However, the CEO was a bit early that time.

"Wow, that bracelet…! You got it from Kaiba, right?" Yugi asked as he stared at the jewelry in awe.

"Nope," Joey grinned, "It's from Mokuba. He got one for Seto, too. Right?" he asked, giving the teen next to him a nudge with the elbow.

The brunet countered by giving his puppy a poke in the side, which resulted in a giggle (Yugi laughed shortly at this interaction), but then he complied and rolled back his sleeve a bit to reveal the bracelet he too was wearing. Yugi clearly was very impressed.

"So, what is this puzzle that apparently is bothering Yami so much?" Seto asked, rolling his sleeve down again.

"It's a logic puzzle. Don't ask me where he found that – maybe on the Internet… anyway, he's so determined to solve it, he's almost got me worried," Yugi sighed.

Seto smirked. He liked logic puzzles – thanks to his high intelligence, he was mostly easily able to solve them. He amused himself by picturing Yami sitting at a desk, poring over a riddle that required deduction to solve it.

"So, what is this logic puzzle thing?" Joey asked. He didn't care for anything riddle-like, so of course he had no idea what they were talking about.

"Basically, it's a mathematical brain-teaser," Seto explained, choosing the shortest explanation.

"…Ugh, math! I hate math!" Joey shuddered, "I can just imagine you liking those things…"

"Indeed, I do, pup. They're very entertaining."

"They've gotta be evil if they've got something to do with math," Joey muttered, insisting on his opinion. (4)

"It's all only logical," Seto purred.

Joey rolled his eyes – whenever their maths teacher said that (and that happened frequently), he either wanted to yawn or say 'Yeah right!'. "Logic doesn't agree with me, Rich Boy." He held his hand up to state that his mind was made up.

Seto placed his palm against Joey's and gently forced the other teen to lower his hand again. As far as he was concerned, he now knew at least one subject on which he could help the blond with his studies… Suddenly remembering where and with whom he was, he looked back at Yugi. "The midget" was beaming at them, but didn't comment what he had just witnessed (Seto was grateful for that – he would probably have enough to deal with at the New Year's party).

"Perhaps you could give him a little hint if he doesn't solve it until New Year's, Kaiba," he suggested.

"Just like that? You should know that I don't give away favors for free." Seto crossed his arms, and his eyes glinted challengingly. "If he duels me, I guess I could help him."

"Can I call you later or do you want an answer now?"

"Now," Seto answered firmly.

Joey and Yugi exchanged a glance and knew that objection was pointless: when there was a chance of dueling Yami, Seto was unstoppable and very stubborn. So Yugi took out his cell phone and called up his dark side back at the game shop. After a few rings, a voice that resembled that of a company's answering machine said:

_"Kame Game Shop, Yami speaking…"_

"Hey Yami, I'm here at the park with Joey and Kaiba, and… well, you know about that puzzle you're working on? I asked Kaiba if he'd help you a bit, and he agreed if you'll duel him –"

_"But I'm quite sure that I'm close to getting the hang of this!"_ Yami protested, though still not sounding fully with the program. Yugi could just picture him sitting at a table, staring first at the paper with the problem on it and then at a self-sketched chart in which each field had been erased at least a dozen times.

"Just let him give you a little hint!" Yugi pleaded. All he heard was a distinctive mutter along with the faint sound of a pencil that was scribbling on paper. Seto was getting impatient and scowled, though not as distinctively as he had used to. Yugi got the message and tried again: "Just one duel, Yami, surely there's time for that…!"

_"Yes… of course…"_ the Pharaoh replied. The chances were high that he wasn't really aware of what the conversation was about.

"Deal, then. See you soon." Yugi hung up. "You're on, Kaiba."

"Finally!" the brunet snorted, "This time **I'll** win…!"

Neither Yugi nor Joey dared to mention the possibility of another loss; if Yami would really be fully concentrated, they didn't see how why it should be different this time… Deciding to change the subject as not to risk saying something he might regret, Yugi remarked:

"Grandpa will be delighted to see you all again."

"So we'll be the same crowd like at the Halloween party?" Joey asked. When his guess was confirmed, he expressed his pleasure with a cry of: "All right…!"

Leaving them to discuss a few other things about the party, such as the location et cetera, Seto did a bit of self-analysis once more. He took notice of how he wasn't feeling the same amount of dread like back before the Halloween party. _'I guess this attitude is changing as well,'_ he decided as he had another sip of coffee. He only hoped that Joey would be right about their reactions, for he practically **knew** that they would find out about the change in his relationship status even if he wouldn't say a thing or let it show…! To distract himself from those thoughts, he made himself return to the present again and even added a couple of his own comments until Yugi excused himself, saying that he should go check on Yami.

"See you in a few days!"

"See ya then, Yug'!" Joey replied with a small salute. Beside him, Seto merely nodded.

After the departure of the short teen, the other two stayed in the café a little while longer before Joey said that he wanted to go outside again. He led Seto to the center of the park, where the largest Christmas tree in town was located. Although it didn't look bad with the bunches of little red, blue and yellow lights amongst the decorations, Seto thought that their own tree at home was prettier.

"This place is great for hanging out during the holidays! I used to come here with Serenity before we were separated…"

"It isn't the first time I'm here, either, but so far, I never really bothered to really look around," Seto said on his part.

"Of course you didn't; you were probably thinking too much about your work or something." Joey had actually been joking a bit when he said that, but Seto took it seriously:

"You're right. And I happened to come here very rarely anyway, I often stayed at the office on the 24th."

"You're a workaholic, has anyone ever told you that?" Joey asked. The mere thought of voluntarily working full-time on that day almost made him grimace.

"It has been mentioned before, yes. You don't need to tell me that you're the opposite of that…" Seto remarked, amused by the grimace.

"I know that Christmas **Day** is actually the real holiday, but still… I'd hate working on the 24th." A look like that of a child that had spotted a candy store appeared on his face, and he exclaimed: "Hey, look, you can get mulled wine over there! That'd be just swell now…!"

"But you've just had something back at the café!"

"It's seasonal, Seto! That stuff's good, haven't you tried it before?"

"Admittedly, I haven't." He took his wallet out of one of the pockets. "I'd like to, though," he said, handing Joey a few coins.

"Sure thing! Thanks!" The blond hurried off to the stand, where he got a cup of the drink. On the way back, he sipped it and beamed happily.

"Alright, puppy, hand it over, you've made me curious…" Seto told him. When it was offered to him, he took the cup and tried that special drink, which was quite warming. Nodding to show his approval, he handed the cup back to Joey.

"One of the joys of Christmas…"

"In any case, it's very tasty," Seto replied.

"More?" Joey offered as they continued walking.

"…Why not?" Seto was relieved that the outing was so peaceful – usually, at least half a dozen people would have spoken to him by now, but perhaps because everyone was too occupied with their own affairs, they let him be. The anonymity was strange to him… but no matter how much he came to appreciate that as they strolled around the park for quite a while, it was almost nothing compared to the privacy within the mansion's walls, where he could finally kiss Joey without needing to waste a thought on what others would think about that if they'd see them…

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Later, when they were watching the evening news on TV, the phone rang. Wondering who that could be, Seto answered it, though at the same time assuring Joey that the volume didn't need to be turned down – contrarily to what was said about most males, Seto could focus on the phone even with the TV running in the background.

"Kaiba."

"_Kaiba, it's me, Yami. I just wanted to tell you that there will be no need for our duel. I've solved the puzzle…"_

Seto's face fell for a second, then turned into a scowl. "Oh, really?"

"_Yes. It was hard, but I managed."_

"Are you sure?"

This seemed to catch the Pharaoh off-guard. _"…I think so… I've only just finished…"_

"I can't help but wonder which one is occupying you so immensely…" Seto said with fake innocence. In fact, he already had a guess which one they were talking about – one that was popular enough that he could picture the spirit finding it on the Internet…

"_The question is who drinks water –" _Yami began.

"– and who owns a zebra," Seto finished immediately, his assumption confirmed.

"_How did you know?!"_ Yami asked, surprised.

"The Zebra Puzzle (5)… of course I know about that one. A few years ago, I had to solve it, and I recall to have needed quite some time to do so, though nowadays it would be 'a piece of cake', as you'd probably say…"

"_Do you remember the solution?"_ Yami asked.

'_**Someone**__ is hopeful…!'_ Seto thought. This whole ordeal amused him to no end. "Yes. Tell me, who drinks water?"

"_The Spaniard,"_ was the reply after a short pause during which Yami had needed to make out the solution he had hastily scribbled down.

"Wrong," Seto said flat-out, unable to hold back a grin (at the other end of the couch, Joey could barely wait to ask what the hell made him grin like that).

There was silence on Yami's end, and Seto simply couldn't picture the other's expression at that moment, though he wished he could.

"And what about the zebra?" the brunet asked, though it was more or less just a test to see whether he'd still get any kind of answer.

"…_The Ukrainian?"_ The Pharaoh's voice was a mixture between hope and desolation.

"Wrong again," Seto told him. He guessed that if he wouldn't still be fretting from his loss to his greatest rival, he might really feel pity for him. Still; the ghost of that might be somewhere within him…

"…_I guess the duel's still on,"_ Yami concluded faintly.

"It sure is," Seto said firmly.

"_Of course,"_ was the rather dull response he got, _"Sorry for bothering you, Kaiba…"_

"Not at all. See you at New Year's," Seto assured him, then hung up. "What is it, puppy?"

"If I hadn't been there when you and Yug' talked about that puzzle thingy, I would've considered you to be acting plain weird – talking about a zebra and someone who drinks water…" Joey explained, "So Yami got it all wrong, then?"

"Precisely. At least I'll still get my duel…"

"Being a little mean, aren't you?" Joey asked teasingly.

"He's still my rival," Seto insisted.

"I know, I know. But you could help him anyway…"

"I made my conditions clear, as you certainly remember."

"It's just a hint, you know."

"That's what's at stake for **him**. But for me…" Seto silenced as he closed his eyes and started thinking about what kind of strategy he'd use this time.

Joey figured that since this meant so much to Seto (who still considered Yami to be his worthiest opponent when it came to Duel Monsters – other games had other opponents), he would let him brood over the matter in peace, so he finished watching the news and then played a game. The two of them eventually lost track of the time, so it was close to midnight when Joey decided to call it a day. When he said goodnight to Seto, a rather subtle apology for getting so caught up in thoughts was made to him, but he just waved it aside and assured that he understood. Glad for that, Seto gave him a proper goodnight kiss before spending another thirty minutes thinking about possible strategies.

'_This time, __**I**__ will win! You'll see…!'_

And in the hopefully unlikely case that he **wouldn't**, he thought, he'd have at least one New Year's resolution, for he had vowed to himself not to ever give up before he would finally win. Nothing and no one would ever be able to change that…

* * *

(1) That movie and the second one, "Lost in New York", are almost guaranteed to come on TV at least once in December, and I watch 'em every time... they're a blast :D

(2) Brilliant story, and I love the cartoon adaptation of it (yay, Mom already promised me that I'd get the DVD for Xmas!)... it's really a story worth reading.

(3) Have you ever experienced something like that before? I have, and not only my ribs, but especially my jaws hurt by the time I could stop... ;) Um, yeah... this part is another result from me being FUBAR...

(4) Math is evil. Raise your hand if you agree... _-raises hand- _(however, logic puzzles are kinda fun)

(5) Some claim that Einstein said that only 2 percent of the people in the world can solve it... have you guys tried to solve it? It was tough, but eventually I succeeded (somehow)... (but I can't imagine that the whole 2 percent thing is true - if that were the case, I probably wouldn't have been able to solve it)

Hope you liked it... there were quite a few expressions that gave me a bit of trouble, so I apologize if some things sound strange. If you have any suggestions to clarify such things, please tell me!


	18. Chapter 18

Ah, I managed to update this weekend! Yay, mission accomplished! I should be working on something for French, but my work here was practically screaming to be continued, so oh well. It's only half past twelve, so I still have a little more than half the Sunday to go - hmm, but if I subtract at least one hour to watch skiing as well as a good amount of time to help Mom with Christmas cookies and another hour for solving crossword puzzles... what the heck, there still should be a little time left.

Anyway, hope you guys like this chapter! I think it's my longest so far when it comes to word count... Again, I'd be glad to hear what you think, though I barely dare to ask anything more of you guys, you've been so good to me...

**Serenitysfaith**: Aah, thank you very much! Wow, I've been keeping this up for five months?! o.O Amazing... Anyway, glad you like it so much, also concerning the character portrayal (I mean, in the beginning some kept telling me that they were IC, but meanwhile... eh, I just find it too hard to keep up once certain emotions get in the way) ;)

**lipstickprincess:** Gosh, I don't even know what to say anymore...! _-blushes-_ Compliments like that mean so much to me! I'm glad that you like my writing, I always try to do my best... :)

**Tearless Tenshi**: Oh, I hope I didn't give it all away... hmm, I probably should include a warning that there might be spoilers... _-thoughtful-_ I was sad too when Boxer died... but that part is kinda different in the book than in the movie. Anyway, I'm glad that I could make up for blabbing out that little detail :) Yeah, I'm trying... ;)

**Glue Project**: Thank you for the compliment :)))

**petalpixie**: Thanks! I try to do my best, and that's about the best thing I can be told from a reviewer :) Really?! Yay, so do I! They're really so funny, and I'm grateful for any laugh I get... I hope it'll air soon on TV here... ;)

**Frathworth & Butts**: (I know I've already replied via mail, but by giving a second, abridged reply, the others can also be in the picture of how... strange I am and what issues lead to that) I think I've scarred my "poor" brother for life by mentioning my love for puppyshipping... I can't believe he went complaining to Mom and Dad about how "she's writing about fags, that's so gross!"; talk about being narrow-minded, sheesh... He may deny it, but he sure is very conservative when it comes to the issue of homosexuality (especially concerning two guys; being the little pervert he is, he doesn't mind two girls so much _-rolls eyes-_). I gotta go watch the end of the anime sometime (a bit of vacation would be extremely useful right about now), I'm curious to see whether I'll be disappointed too or not... _-sigh-_ A bit of "Happy Rock" would be quite good for me right now, 'cause every time I have to leave the house, I get stressed within ten minutes, and by the end of the day... well, I guess you can do the math _-sweatdrop-_

**Solo's Orca**: I'm so glad... there were two or three parts where I kinda struggled, but if it's good, then that's swell. Ah yes, I love it too (I'm totally in the spirit now and have bought almost all presents); yeah, I hate that too. They don't play the music until December, but they do decorate the shops here in October as well. They do the same thing with Easter too, but not Halloween (okay, that's because it's not exactly a popular holiday here)...! Yes, it sure would be... although, I've thought up how they'll find out (it's probably kinda ordinary, but I usually can't bear to change my plans), but I gotta think about what'll happen afterwards...

* * *

Finally, New Year's Eve had come. Mokuba was very excited and hoped that the celebration would be as enjoyable as the Halloween party. His older brother was restless because he couldn't wait for his duel; he went over all his strategies at least one more time, and although he tried to deny it, he kept looking at the clock. But he didn't make a secret of his hopes to have the duel as soon as they got there.

"Big brother, are you ready?" Mokuba called from outside the elder's bedroom door.

"I'm ready," was the answer before Seto emerged from the room, looking almost like he always did – except that he wasn't wearing a plain black shirt beneath his trench coat, but rather the shirt he had gotten from Mokuba for his birthday.

"It looks good on you," was the youngster's compliment when he noticed that.

"Thank you. It's very pleasant to wear," Seto smiled.

"Great! Hmm, I wonder if Joey's ready yet…" And he ran to the other's bedroom. He had just raised his fist to knock on the door when it opened.

"I don't know about you guys, but **I'm** ready!" the blond said cheerfully.

"Good, so are we! Let's go!" Mokuba replied eagerly, and the way he hurried downstairs, they couldn't get going quickly enough. As they drove to the cabin Yugi had arranged on the town's outskirts, Seto was bristling with anticipation. Joey didn't fail to notice this and silently hoped that the CEO would still be able to enjoy himself, even if he might lose the duel…

Even from the outside, the place looked really festive with a large banner that practically screamed: "Happy New Year!" It only took a few seconds for the door to open after a short knock, revealing a very happy-looking Yugi.

"Hi guys! Come on in!" he invited them.

They entered the cabin and found that almost everyone was already there: in a corner, the sound system had been set up, and right in front of it, Tristan was dancing with Tea – but a second glance made it clear that she was teaching him some steps. A waltz, in fact. Some ways away from the boxes, Ryou and Serenity were sitting at one of the two tables. They were obviously playing a game, and judging by the looks of the board, it was Parcheesi. Yami was sitting there too, though he didn't look as if he was the one playing the third color.

"Hello! It's great that you could come too!" Ryou greeted them in his usual mild, friendly manner.

Serenity, on the other hand, quickly stood up and rushed to her brother to give him a big hug.

"Whoa, Serenity, I can't breathe!" he protested a bit. People usually didn't think so, but she sure came close to bear hugs on certain occasions…

"Oh Joey, it's so good to see you again!" she sighed happily.

"Yeah, the same goes for me too…" he assured her once she loosened her grip a little bit.

When she drew back, she beamed at him before turning to the teen beside him. "Good evening, Kaiba."

"Hello Serenity," he replied with a nod.

For a moment, they just looked at each other, but then Serenity gave him a short, light hug. Because she hadn't met him often before, she wasn't sure if she was crossing a line, but Seto briefly returned the gesture and eased that dim worry of hers.

Meanwhile, Mokuba had waved hello to Tea and Tristan, and now he tugged at the red-haired girl's sleeve. "Hi Serenity! How are you?" he asked.

She let go of Seto and smiled at him. "Fine, and you?"

"Couldn't be better," he grinned, "Um… could I play with you guys?"

"Sure! You know how to play the game, don't you?"

"Yeah…"

They went to the table, and Seto pursed his lips.

"Time to get down to business…"

"Good luck," Joey whispered.

Seto quickly looked around, and when he saw that all the others were occupied with something, he fleetingly kissed the blond. "Thank you."

Joey winked, then ambled over to Tea and Tristan. Seto, on the other hand, marched right up to Yami.

"I guess you know what I'm here for," he said.

"I do," Yami replied and stood up, "It's written all over your face…" When the other narrowed his eyes, signaling that right now, he wasn't in the mood for joking at all, the Pharaoh continued: "Let's go to another room, I'm sure that you want to duel in peace."

"Indeed." Seto followed him to a little adjoined room in which the heating was located. The others' jackets were hanging in here as well so they would be pre-warmed when it was time to watch the fireworks. The two boys sat down at a very little table, though Seto didn't mind **where** they had their duel as long as they **had** it. They shuffled each other's decks, and then the long-awaited duel finally took place.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

"Hey man, what're you up to?" Joey asked Tristan.

"Oh… well, this is the deal: I sneaked a peek at the music Yugi brought, and one song's called 'The Christmas Waltz'. (1) I don't know how to waltz, and I kinda want to impress Serenity," the brunet explained with a faint blush.

"A waltz?" Joey paused for a moment, thinking. "…Tea, could you teach me too?"

"Let me guess: you're trying to impress Kaiba?" she asked knowingly.

"Sort of."

Tea raised an eyebrow at this, but decided against asking any further questions as she continued to teach the two boys how to dance properly.

(Back at the Parcheesi table…)

"A six! I get to move a new pawn!" Ryou cheered happily and moved one of his pawns out of the "nest".

"By the way, Yugi: where's your grandfather?" Mokuba asked as Serenity took the dice. And, looking at Ryou: "And what about Bakura?"

"They'll be here soon. Grandpa's handling the fireworks, he said we could go ahead," Yugi answered.

"Bakura volunteered to help him," Ryou added, "Malik and Marik are getting the champagne and such, and they'll all arrive together."

"If I remember correctly, my brother told me that it's unwise to let Bakura near anything that could explode or cause other damage," Serenity remarked as she moved her pawn and handed the dice to Mokuba.

"Don't worry, I made sure that he won't do anything stupid," Ryou assured her.

"How so?" Mokuba asked.

The white-haired boy winked. "Let's just say that I threatened to deny him something he likes very much."

"You mean that he'd have to sleep on the couch instead of in bed with you?" Mokuba found it amusing that the others overestimated his innocence.

Yugi laughed at the baffled expression on Ryou's face. "How remarkable! You know exactly what he meant…!"

Mokuba smirked. "When big brother goes on business trips, I often stay up late watching TV. And sometimes I saw things that I shouldn't see quite yet… Seto would be horrified if he knew," he added with a giggle, and the others laughed.

Just then, the door opened, and with a gust of cold air from the outdoors, four people entered the cabin.

"We're here!" Malik and Marik yelled in unison.

"And we brought the goods!" Bakura added, putting down several bags that were bulging with firecrackers and fireworks.

"Hi guys! Glad you could come!" Yugi greeted the two Egyptian boys and Ryou's dark side.

"Anytime; who would want to miss such an opportunity…?" Marik told him. It was no secret that he loved to be able to make noise all night long without needing to endure complaints from other people.

"Does this place have a fridge?" Malik asked, nodding to the bags he and his boyfriend were carrying. It looked as though they certainly wouldn't be short on drinks…

"Sure. Over there." Yugi pointed, and the other two proceeded to put the drinks away while the short teen went to help his grandfather put the fireworks aside.

"I've never had such a hard time resisting an urge! Can't I just set off **one** firework?!" Bakura asked exasperatedly as he sat down next to his Hikari.

"Absolutely not, they're for later. Remember what I told you…"

"We toted enough fireworks here to last for at least twenty minutes! Just one…?" Bakura figured that he wouldn't be ordered to sleep on the couch just for asking…

"Oh… maybe. If you behave, I think an exception could be made," Ryou said, hinting a compromise. He had discussed this issue with Yugi in advance, and they had agreed to try and save up all the fireworks for afterwards, although the ancient thief most probably could count on support from Marik.

"Where's the Pharaoh?" Marik wondered.

"He's in the heating room, dueling with Kaiba, so don't even **think** about going in there. Kaiba would kill you if you do," Yugi answered, sitting back down at the table with his grandfather.

"Dueling?! At a New Year's party? Whose brilliant idea was **that**?" Malik asked sarcastically.

"Kaiba's. You see, there's this logic puzzle…" He explained the situation briefly. Malik just shook his head, muttering 'It figures…' while Marik laughed out loud as he imagined Yami's distress over getting the puzzle wrong.

After a while, the door to the heating room suddenly opened, and Yami stepped out. Whatever the others were doing, they stopped for a moment as all gazes swerved to the Pharaoh. Although the room was silent, the question they were all dying to ask was written all over their faces. Yami noticed this right away and shook his head briefly. Uneasy glances were exchanged.

Joey and Mokuba glanced at each other right away, and the youngster bit his lower lip. In response to the questioning look of the blond, he nodded, and silently, Joey headed for the little room. When the door closed behind him, the others started talking again to relieve the atmosphere of the unease. Yami sat down next to Yugi.

"He was so certain that he would win…" (2)

"Was it a crushing defeat?"

"No, but I'm sure that he didn't take it easily…"

Mokuba sighed ruefully; he hoped that Seto wouldn't be in a bad mood for the rest of the night, it would be such a shame…

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

For a moment, Joey was unsure if he even should approach the other as he closed the door behind him. In here, a different type of silence was in the air – one that wasn't tense, but dull and gloomy.

Seto was sitting at the table and stared at it, though Joey was pretty sure that he wasn't really seeing it at all. His hands, which were balled to fists, rested on his thighs, and his mouth was a thin line. The blond teen took a deep breath and hesitantly knelt beside the other, who showed no reaction.

"…Seto?" he asked quietly after a few seconds.

There was a longer pause, but then a mumble came up: "I lost…" A brief silence, then: "…**again**!" That word was spat with pure disgust, and exactly that stopped Joey from replying right away. He didn't like seeing Seto like this, but what was almost worse was that it seemed to be one of those situations in which whatever you said was wrong anyway. When he saw how Seto tensed up so much that his knuckles turned white, he decided to take a chance: he laid his hand on one of the now slightly shaking fists and pleaded:

"Please don't do this! Stop before you hurt yourself…!"

The brunet's voice was dripping with disappointment and shook with an anger that was most probably directed at himself rather than at Yami. "Why can't I do it? Why can't I beat him…?!" (3)

"Hey, don't get so worked up over it…" Joey tried to appease him and reached out for his arm with the other hand, but before he could touch it, Seto's other fist shot up and caught it. His grip was extremely painful, and his nails started digging into the flesh. (4) That would leave marks… "Ow!" Joey winced, though not giving nearly as much utterance to the pain as he normally would, "Stop it, Seto!" He hissed a bit when the grip tightened even more. "Let go!" It felt as if the CEO was trying to crush his hand just like that…

The quite frightening, enraged look in the blue eyes ebbed away the instant that the taller boy realized what he really was doing. He let go right away and stared in horror as the other teen covered the nasty marks with his other hand. And that hurt look on the puppy's face…

"Joey… I'm so sorry…" His voice shook with dismay.

"Heh… that sure was something else…" Incredibly, Joey was even grinning weakly, and although he didn't sound mad at all, Seto wished that he had screamed. What he had done didn't deserve to be belittled in **any** way…

"Puppy, I'm sorry… I didn't know what I was doing," he muttered, unable to face him.

"Seto –"

Hastily, he stood up. He just couldn't stand it. "Forgive me, but I… Just give me a bit of time for myself…"

"If you promise not to walk out on us," was the response as Joey rose as well.

Seto merely nodded. He hadn't felt so miserable and guilty in quite a while. And although it was meant in a comforting way, what his boyfriend did next only strengthened those feelings drastically: he hugged him. Shortly, but a hug was a hug. And then that promising smile… Seto turned away and walked out of the room.

The babble died down as he showed himself. He didn't look at anybody, but he didn't avert his gaze either. Without a word, he went for the door, grabbed his coat, and as he left the cabin, he heard Mokuba ask worriedly:

"…Big brother…?"

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

"Joey! Are you alright, man?" Tristan asked as soon as his friend left the heating room as well, concerned by the slightly shaken look on the otherwise cheerful face.

"Yeah, I'm fine… Listen, guys, just leave him alone for a while, okay?" Joey asked all of them. They all agreed silently and successfully smoothed over the tarnished moment by resuming their interrupted talks or activities. Joey thrust his bruised hand into the pocket of his jeans and sat down at the table where the same group was still playing Parcheesi. He had barely sat down, however, when Mokuba reached over and pulled the hand out of the pocket to examine it.

"Ooh, that looks nasty… what happened?!" Ryou asked, horrified. The way the marks looked, the blond would have started to bleed if Seto had stopped just a little later.

"Seto did this, right?" Mokuba asked in a downcast voice when Joey fidgeted, unable to look right back at him for a moment. But then his friend gave him a reassuring smile and answered:

"Yes, but… well, he kinda coped badly with losing to Yami, and I guess he lost control for a moment." Serenity looked alarmed upon seeing what had been done to her brother; he noticed this and said: "Give the guy a break, sis… You should've seen how eagerly he was awaiting this duel! No wonder he's so disappointed to have lost…"

"Still… **that** shouldn't have happened," she argued, pointing to his hand.

"Let me handle this."

To Joey's relief, three other people interrupted the conversation, thus preventing any possible arguments between the Wheeler siblings.

"Wow, Blondie, that's one hell of a beautiful bracelet!" Bakura whistled as he sat down next to him, eying the jewelry interestedly.

"Is there any way to make you stop using that name?" Joey shot back, though not minding it that much at the moment. If this was a running gag between them, he might as well accept it, for everyone knew that it was better to be on good terms instead of bad ones with the thief.

"Nope, it's way too much fun to see the look on your face every time I use it," Bakura replied with a grin.

"Anyway, he's right; looks like you've been made a really fancy present for Christmas," Marik commented, looking no less interested than Ryou's dark side.

"Hey, he's living with Kaiba, after all!" Malik laughed, elbowing his lover.

"So it is, yet I thought that they were like cat and dog…" the other Egyptian replied.

By now, Bakura had grabbed Joey's wrist and was examining the bracelet intently. Aside from the blond's observation of this, Ryou kept an eye on the thief as well – with him, you just never quite knew what would happen in such situations. In the background, Malik and Marik were talking about their assumption that since Joey was "probably on good terms" with the CEO, he was most likely living like a rock star or something. The teen in question just sighed and decided to let them have their speculations; in any case, he was happy with the way he was living. Why ask for more when you're satisfied with what you have…?

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

About twenty minutes later, Yugi announced that he'd like to change the music soon. This suggestion was widely approved, for many of them felt like dancing. Joey, however, called his friend aside and asked for him to wait a bit with the special stuff, like the Christmas Waltz Tristan had mentioned earlier on. Yugi understood right away.

"Sure, Joey! No problem!"

"Thanks, Yug'! You're a true friend!" Joey told him happily, then turned to go find Seto.

"You're sure that he's still here?" Mokuba asked as his friend put on his coat.

"Yeah. I asked him if he'd promise not to walk out on us before he went outside, and he agreed."

"I hope you're right…" Mokuba muttered.

"Trust me. I'll be right back."

The raven-haired boy nodded, then returned to the others while Joey stepped outside into the cold nightly air. He spotted Seto quite soon: he was sitting beneath a snow-covered fir tree (that was an advantage of those knee-long coats – you could sit on something else instead of the cold ground). He had crossed his arms on his knees and was gazing into nowhere. Joey walked up to him, hoping that they would be able to sort out the matter, then settled down.

"Hey, Seto, are you a bit better now?" he inquired.

The brunet slowly looked at him, and for the first time, Joey saw tears in the cerulean eyes. It was a very sad sight.

"Hello Joey…" he merely whispered in an unfamiliarly hoarse voice.

"Listen, I know that you're blaming yourself for… you know, what happened back there," Joey said elusively, "but don't do this to yourself. I hate to see you like this, so what do you say to cheering up a bit and coming back to the party with me, hmm? Yug' said he'd wait with the really good stuff till we're back –"

"Puppy, I hope you know that I'm really, really sorry," Seto interrupted him.

Joey sighed heavily and put an arm around Seto's shoulders. "I know. You've told me that three times now… Believe me: I'm not mad, I was just startled."

"You don't understand! I helped you get away from your father because I didn't want you to be hurt again! But now **I** was the one who was doing that…!"

"Listen to me!" Joey half-shouted as he grabbed both of the CEO's shoulders and looked him straight in the eye, "Look, just accept what I said! Of course I hope that this won't happen again, but I beg you to let this whole thing be, at least for now!" Dropping his voice to a whisper, he added: "Don't make a mountain out of a molehill, Seto… I love you and don't want to see you so devastated!"

"I love you too… I hope you know that…"

"Yeah, I do. C'mere, it's alright…"

Joey put his arms around the slightly trembling teen, and when Seto returned the gesture, he was unable to hold back a couple of tears. What he had done back in the heating room felt like betrayal to him, and he wouldn't have blamed Joey for being deeply enraged. But those worries were now being swept aside as he was comforted by the other's touch and soothing whispers.

When he felt a bit calmer, he drew back, and before Joey could comment on the traces of the just shed tears he saw, Seto carefully took the blond's hand in his own to examine the bruises. They looked quite nasty, those still very red lines that were scratched into the skin… Try as he might, Seto couldn't look away from the sight, and as the immense feeling of guilt was returning, he murmured:

"God, I'm so sorry…!"

"Seto?" he heard the hand's owner ask firmly.

"What?" he asked, looking up.

"Apologize one more time and I'll clobber you." Seeing the somewhat horrified look on the CEO's face, Joey swapped the serious look for a merry laugh and qualified his previous statement: "Just kidding! What I mean is: you've apologized enough, okay? I forgive you, if that's what you want to hear."

Seto opened his mouth – Joey braced himself for either a simple protest or yet another apology – but then the door to the cabin banged open, and two excited voices rang through the air:

"Yeah man, we did it!"

"Finally, some real action!"

"You got the lighter?"

"Of course, what did you think…?"

Seto and Joey looked back to the cabin and saw the dark forms of Bakura and Marik approaching. They were clutching several fireworks each.

"Bombs away!" Bakura yelled gleefully and threw a bunch of jumping crackers. The peacefulness of the night was disrupted by a ruckus of crackling and snapping and really miniature explosions. Sparks flew up from the snow where the crackers landed.

"My turn!" Marik said eagerly and fired off some other firecracker – this one, however, exploded with a very loud bang, and both Seto and Joey jumped. A small fountain of snow shot upwards where the explosion had happened.

"**Noise**!" the two Yamis exclaimed and gave each other a high five. (5)

"I can't believe it! I thought Ryou had forbidden Bakura to set those things off!" Joey sighed.

"Lunatics, both of them," Seto commented as he wiped his cheeks with his sleeve; he wasn't exactly keen on letting everyone know that he had actually cried a bit…

"But friends nevertheless," Joey reminded him.

Managing a smile once again, Seto shrugged. "Whatever you say, pup."

"Hey, look who's there!" they heard Bakura exclaim.

"Well, well, there's something you don't see everyday!" Marik snickered as they approached the other two, whose embrace was still fairly evident.

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking, Marik?" Bakura asked pointedly with a wink. The Egyptian got the idea and played along, replying with faked innocence:

"I don't know; what **are** you thinking, Bakura?"

"I think Blondie's in **love**!" the thief answered, using a girlish tone of voice for the last word, then the two of them started laughing – at this point, especially Seto looked at them as if they had smoked crack or something.

"So what if I am?" Joey spoke up.

Marik tried to calm down a little. "You mean **he's** right?" He pointed to Bakura.

"Yeah. You got a problem with that?" the blond retorted defiantly.

The spirits exchanged a quick glance, then started laughing yet again. "Of course not!" This time, though, they regained a hold of themselves more quickly. "No, seriously, why would we? We'd be the last ones to say anything against it." They both turned around and tossed a couple of firecrackers; this time, the noise was even louder, and they whooped happily.

"How the heck did you get your hands on that stuff?" Joey asked once he was sure that he would be heard.

"I behaved decently," Bakura explained with a carefree shrug and set off half of the remaining jumping crackers he had. Perhaps Ryou had merely agreed because those things were small and therefore insignificant for the later spectacle…

For a moment, there was silence, then Joey deadpanned: "…Yeah right."

"It's true!" the white-haired boy protested.

"You were practically **begging**, though," Marik reminded him.

"Was not!"

"Oh hell yeah!"

"…But you too."

Marik just grinned widely. "That's not the same; I made a deal with my Hikari. He'll be in for a special treat…"

"Hmm," Bakura muttered, interested, "Maybe I should try that with Ryou more often too."

Joey got up and announced: "I don't know about you guys, but I'm going back there! Yug' promised to wait with some good music, and I don't wanna keep him and the others waiting much longer! Coming, Seto?" he asked and held out his hand.

"Yes." When Seto was on his feet again, the little group went back to the cabin. Along the way, Marik took the opportunity to ask:

"So, Kaiba, we've heard it from Joey, but now we'd like to know if you feel the same – or is this a one-sided love, which I personally doubt?" he added.

Seto was about to give a smart retort when he remembered that sooner or later, he would have to admit the truth anyway – so why not make use of this and consider the act of coming out among Yugi and the others as practice for when he would need to talk to the media? Therefore: "Yes, I feel the same," he replied.

The two Yamis exchanged a look that he didn't like at all, then Bakura said: "Well, that'll have to do for now. But perhaps you'll bother to **really** show that you mean it sometime tonight, won't you?"

The tall teen narrowed his eyes, rendering all words useless, and Joey gave them some advice: "Don't push him, okay?" They were walking close enough together that he could grab Seto's hand without the others noticing it, and this made the brunet get the distinctively small smile that was all the others knew so far. Just before going back inside, Bakura and Marik tossed away the remaining fireworks they were holding, thus making one last blast of noise before they re-entered the cabin. Of course, their return didn't go unnoticed.

"Bakura, what did you do **now**?" Ryou asked, rightfully suspicious because the thief was grinning from ear to ear, as was Marik too.

"Nothing, dear Ryou…"

Ryou looked at Malik, and they both nodded in agreement. "They did **something**, all right…"

"Nothing bad, though!" their counterparts insisted.

"Big brother! Are you doing better?" Mokuba asked, latching himself onto his sibling.

"Yes, Mokuba. I hope I wasn't worrying you too much…"

"No… except for… you know, about Joey…" the boy replied, fidgeting a bit.

Joey ruffled the black hair of the younger Kaiba. "It's okay, kiddo, we've settled that." Mokuba smiled with relief.

"Is it time for the waltz now?" Tristan asked.

"A **waltz**?" some people asked.

"Exactly, I've got a song called 'The Christmas Waltz'," Yugi said brightly, "I figured that since Christmas and New Year's are so close together, why not play it anyway?"

"I think it's a great idea!" Serenity agreed and cast Tristan a hopeful look, to which he nodded confidently as he remembered what Tea had taught him.

"Sounds interesting… how about you and me, Hikari?" Bakura asked surprisingly sweetly, taking Ryou's hand. His lighter half responded by pulling him close.

As the usual couples got together, Yugi turned on the music, and the beautiful melody of "The Christmas Waltz" rang through the cabin. Mokuba and Solomon made do with simply watching the others dance, though they also talked together (during this, the old man remarked that he was happy to see how Seto seemed much happier and no longer the overly grim teen he had met some time ago).

Meanwhile, the others quickly noticed how (astoundingly, for them) close Seto and Joey were dancing. Marik and Bakura did their best to pretend that they knew nothing as they decided to let them tell the news themselves…

As they danced, Joey and Seto were more or less oblivious to the looks they were getting. Because what he had done before still lingered somewhere in the back of his mind, Seto applied a lot of effort to making everything perfect; this was made easier anyway by Joey knowing the steps Tea had taught him as well, so he impressed the other teen to a similar degree like by showing his quick learning of salsa at the Halloween party.

"Seto?" the blond asked when the song went into its final phase.

"What, puppy?"

"Is it okay with you if we tell the others about us before we ring in the New Year? Let's not keep them guessing…"

The brunet agreed along with a suggestion: "Yes, but… must we talk?"

Joey gave a quiet laugh and shook his head. "No, we don't."

"Good; I have wanted to do **this** anyway," Seto whispered before leaning forward and kissing Joey, who responded right away, and the kiss deepened all by itself. This lasted for a couple of seconds, then they broke the contact only to start all over again.

"Looks like you were right, Bakura…" Ryou muttered as he watched the two while being snuggled up against his dark side.

"I told you so," Bakura grinned and lightly kissed his Hikari's hair. When Serenity and Tristan were close by, he hissed: "See? I was right!"

"Yeah…" Tristan replied absently.

Shortly thereafter, the song was over, and there was only silence until the next song came up. Luckily, it had a rather soft tune to it as well, so they didn't need to shout and scream at each other to be heard. And this time, there was but one discussion topic.

"Wow, you guys really kissed…!"

"Formerly enemies, now friends –"

"– no, **lovers**!"

From what they could hear out of the babble, Seto and Joey guessed that most had had varyingly strong assumptions that ranged from (closer) friendship to attraction and – specifically Bakura – a relationship. What was more interesting, however, were their reactions. The absolute majority showed pure delight, yet…

"Brother, can I have a word with you?" Serenity asked. This didn't surprise Joey, for he had seen the look on her face: it was a cross between happy and worried.

"Sure, sis. We'll just be a minute…" he said, excusing them. Figuring that they wouldn't be gone for too long, the two siblings went outside, where the night was peacefully quiet once more. Serenity took a deep breath and spoke:

"Joey, I hope you won't get me wrong… I'm glad that you're happy, but I also wish for you to be careful of what you're doing."

"Because of what happened before?"

"Yes…"

"Look, Serenity: that was just a very hard moment for him. He didn't mean to do what he did –"

"But he **did** it, that's the point! You say that it was this moment, but what if it happens again? How can you be so sure that it won't happen again?"

Joey shook his head. "I know that this startled you, but you shouldn't worry too much now. Seto is not a violent person. Besides, we all have our outbursts every now and then, those moments when we're not ourselves…"

"Maybe, yes, but you've suffered for so long under Dad's tantrums, it has been quite enough! I know that it often happened because he was drunk, but I also remember you telling me that it occasionally was just out of frustration over the way his life went! We may all run that particular risk, but it doesn't look right when you've gotten away from Dad not so long ago and already you're being hurt again!"

"But unlike Dad, Seto regrets to have done it! You should've seen him, Serenity; he apologized again and again and could barely stop! Heck, he even **cried**, and I had never seen him cry before! Please, just try to relax a bit… I mean, it's not like we fell head-over-heels in love…"

"All I want is for you to be happy, brother. I don't want you to suffer anymore; at least never again as much as you did before Kaiba helped you," Serenity sniffed, then she shuddered a bit in the cold air.

"I **am** happy," Joey replied in assurance as he hugged her, "Try to look at it this way: it took a while for me and Seto to even get into a relationship, so we got to know each other much better. Mokuba was right when he said that it was wrong of us to think that his brother could only be a jerk… I don't think he will treat me even **remotely** the way Dad did. Try to give him a chance, even after what happened before, okay?"

Serenity nodded, though Joey kept in mind that knowing her, she wasn't over with worrying yet. In spite of that, she managed a quite genuine smile before they went back inside, where the spirits were high and the music was loud again. Joey said a few final encouraging words to his sister before he ambled over to Seto, who was talking quietly with Mokuba. Serenity, on the other hand, went to Tristan, whose look was suitable for the part of her that wasn't quite soothed yet…

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

About three hours later, the mood of the celebration pretty much resembled that of the Halloween party. Even those who had had restraints earlier ago were now loosened up (sometimes, this was due to the drinks). Serenity had managed to calm down a great deal, but this time it was Tristan who still had doubtful looks in his face, sometimes more and sometimes less apparent. To explain himself, he simply told his girlfriend that he'd go have a talk with someone later on – not with Joey, but rather with Seto. Right now, though, there was another matter at hand that had a higher priority: it was soon midnight and therefore time to set off their assembly of fireworks and ring in the New Year.

"Let **me** do it, granddad," Bakura told Solomon as the old man made to grab the bags with the really nifty fireworks. Said old man paused and gave Bakura that 'Yes, son?' look, and Yugi raised an eyebrow. This made the thief hurry to say: "I mean… that way, you won't have to stress yourself with running away once the matches are lit…"

Solomon chuckled amusedly. "If you insist…"

Yugi's face had brightened visibly. "Ah, right, that's very nice of you, Bakura!"

The spirit frowned at the mention of that word and even scowled when Marik couldn't hold back a snigger. "I'm not **nice**," he muttered defensively and marched to the door, away from Marik's glee.

"**I** think you are… most of the time, at least!" Ryou laughed as he accompanied his Yami outside. The others laughed too as they all left the cabin.

Since they weren't on a hilltop or anything, the plan was that the fireworks would be set off some ways away where there were fewer trees.

"Are you coming with me?" Bakura asked Ryou.

"Yes, I guess that can be arranged," his lover agreed with the smile that Bakura had come to adore.

"I want to come along as well!" Marik spoke up, his eyes gleaming with excitement as he thought about setting off the really cool stuff.

"No way!" Bakura protested and held the bags away demonstratively, "**I** volunteered, so **I** get to set them off!"

"Don't be so selfish!" the Egyptian tried to persuade him, and a bit of bickering ensued (the others watched this with a great deal of amusement).

"Alright, that's quite enough!" Malik said after a while, "C'mon, Bakura, don't be a jerk! It's boring to set all of them off on your own…!"

Bakura struggled with himself, but when Ryou encouraged him as well to share, he finally agreed: "All right, but three quarters are mine!"

"Fifty-fifty!" Marik argued, and the two headed for the spot to set off the fireworks, their lighter halves right behind them while shaking their heads at the somewhat ridiculous, albeit cute argument.

The others stayed where they were, and those of them who had watches kept track of the time. They were a couple of minutes early, so it was all too imaginable that Bakura was immensely on edge to finally start the show – unless, of course, he would be so occupied with negotiating with Marik that he would "forget" his impatience…

"How much longer, Seto?" Mokuba asked eagerly.

"Half a minute…" his sibling answered, "…20 seconds… 15 seconds…" Then they all chanted the countdown:

"Ten… nine… eight… seven… six… five… four…"

A safety's distance away, Bakura and Marik had set up the first fireworks, and now they lit the matches before retreating a couple of steps.

"…Three… two… one…!"

And when the digital display on Seto's watch changed from 11.59 to 12.00, the fireworks shot towards the heavens, where they exploded with loud bangs and a burst of colors. The gang observed the spectacle with awed murmurs.

Apparently they had come to a suitable agreement, for Bakura and Marik did a perfect job of keeping the fireworks going – there were no delays that could have been due to a dispute. As a few of the one-second crackers were creating sparks of pink, green, red et cetera among the nightly sky, Seto took a moment to look at his brother and Joey. Both were quite engrossed in watching the fireworks, their faces being illuminated with the different colors. Just when Seto was about to put an arm around Joey, the blond murmured:

"Wow…"

Seto looked up to the sky again and saw a huge golden palm-tree-like shower of golden sparks along with a few bluish ones. It was one of those literally breath-taking sights. The other fireworks that followed weren't any less spectacular, and nobody could look away until it was over in another parade of colors. When that was the case, they all started clapping, and most of them cheered.

"That was awesome, Yug'!" Joey marveled.

"Yeah, the best fireworks ever!" Mokuba agreed.

While they waited for those who had set off the fireworks to return and (once that had happened) on their way back to the cabin, they chit-chatted about the fireworks. When they were indoors again, Malik and Marik gladly fetched some bottles of the champagne they had brought so they could make a toast all together.

"Happy New Year!"

With that done, people then proceeded to toast to a single other, like Seto and Joey did.

"Hope it'll be a good one for you, pup," Seto said.

"I bet it will. And the same to you too, of course," Joey replied.

They kissed affectionately, then clinked their glasses before sipping the fine champagne.

"By the way: when do you want to go home?" the brunet asked.

Joey laughed. "Not tonight! Yug' said we could stay right here, and as far as I remember, he said that the others already agreed to do that!"

"Stay here?" Seto repeated.

"That'd be great, big brother! Let's stay too!" Mokuba piped up.

Seto opened his mouth to give a protesting reason, but in a quick reaction to that, both Joey and Mokuba used the puppy-eyes on him. The CEO shut his mouth again and sighed with a faint smile.

"All right, all right, we'll stay…"

"Yay!" the two cheered.

Tristan wasn't far away and heard the most important parts of that conversation. He was glad for Seto's decision, for there was still a little talk they would have sometime later…

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Three hours later, they were alternating between having little dance sessions and playing random, partially even made-up board games. Most of them had had one too many by now, so consequentially, they were in very good spirits.

As he got himself another glass of water, Seto observed what was going on close to the loudspeakers. The rest of the gang was crowded at a table and playing some game with dice – probably the variation in which you could choose whether to lie or not about what you rolled. Every time someone guessed wrong or when a liar was convicted, they laughed loudly.

"Hey Kaiba," a voice said from behind him.

Seto turned around and found himself facing Tristan. Vaguely, he wondered why he hadn't noticed the absence of Joey's best friend… "What, Taylor?" he asked.

"If you hurt Joey again like that, I'll make sure that you'll be sorry," Tristan said flat-out.

Seto scowled. "Oh, really? Then you might find it hard to believe that I have already expressed regret for what I did…"

"Yeah, well, I never pictured you as the type to apologize."

"You're going overboard," Seto told him. Earlier on, he had noticed some of the rather mistrusting glances from the other brunet, therefore he had made a mental note that in this particular case, the road to conviction might be a little longer.

"Am not," Tristan replied seriously, "You don't honestly expect me to believe or even trust you so quickly, do you?"

Seto calmly drank a bit of his water before answering nonchalantly: "No, I don't." His voice became very serious as he continued, though: "However, I advise you to be more open-minded in this case. Just because you have never seen me apologize doesn't mean that I am incapable of doing that."

"The way you've always acted toward us certainly didn't help," Tristan contradicted. When Seto just stared back him, barely blinking and signaling that a line would get crossed soon, Joey's best friend gave a reluctant sigh and said: "Look, Kaiba, I'm not aiming to pick a fight with you or something. It's just… I was the first one to know about how Joey's dad mistreated him. He sometimes came over to my place, and my mom patched him up a bit; but Joey always was careful to make up a believable reason for his injuries… Look, just let me put it like this: he's my best friend, and I just want him to be happy," he finished rather abruptly, deciding that he would leave it up to the blond to tell such stories when he would feel like it.

"So do I, and that's why I helped him escape from his father in the first place. In fact, I don't believe that **anybody** should suffer from their parents at all. And about what I did to Joey before: if you think I did that intentionally, then you're dead wrong. I never wanted to hurt him like that," Seto explained.

"Still… if I hear that something like that happens again…"

Now actually amused by the pointy-haired teen, Seto remarked sarcastically: "Then keep an eye on me if you believe that's necessary, Taylor. **Spy** on me, even…"

"Kaiba, I'm serious!"

"I know that."

It almost looked as if Tristan were pouting, though Seto doubted that he'd actually do that in his presence. He smirked when a rather grumpy comment was made:

"Perhaps I'll change my mind about picking a fight with you."

"Do you dare?" Seto retorted slyly and smugly noticed the other's hesitation – which was understandable, since no one of the gang knew how well he handled himself in a physical fight. Tristan took a deep breath and was just about to give a sharp reply when a girl's cheery voice said:

"Hey guys, what're you doing? Making friends?"

Like out of nowhere, Tea popped up. She had had more than just one too many and from time to time, she would randomly make a comment about the greatness of friendship, though by now she also mused about it might all be gone some day; her moods could now switch from happy to sad in the fraction of a second.

"Sure, Kaiba and I are best buddies," Tristan answered sarcastically.

"That's so great!" she cheered and hugged them both tightly (both of them silently protested), then suggested: "C'mon over to us and tell the others! They'll be so happy…"

Seto stayed silent as he continued to try and free himself from her while Tristan said elusively: "Um… you go ahead, Tea, we're coming in a second or so…"

"Okay!" Satisfied with that response, the brunette went back to the table, leaving the other two to heave a sigh of relief.

"Quick thinking, Taylor," Seto commented.

"Well, when she had too much for the first time since we knew each other, we didn't make a secret of our discomfort because of her behavior, and then she started crying – and I mean **really** crying. Joey said he was almost sure to have gone deaf on one ear… So unless you want her sobbing and whining against your shoulder, it's best not to make any remarks that even **hint** that you're not friends with somebody or anybody."

"I appreciate the warning," Seto muttered, rolling his eyes at the thought of having Tea cry as she clung to him.

"We'd better get back there, otherwise she might break out into tears anyway," Tristan said as he saw how Tea glanced back at them from where she was sitting.

"Fine," Seto agreed, and they went back to the table, where the CEO graciously left the entire explaination of an apparently existent friendship to Tristan (he earned himself a grumpy look for that, but it only made him smirk).

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Sometime around five in the morning, they finally decided to get some sleep. Despite the warmth that the heating already provided, some of them made use of the blankets that had already been in the cabin before their arrival. Finding a suitable sleeping spot was by far not as easy as when there was a bed, but eventually they all managed.

While he waited for Joey to fall asleep as he held him and Mokuba tight (the boy was using a blanket and thus made his older brother wonder how he could stand the additional heat that the wool was giving to him), Seto thought back on certain things that had happened. Tristan's warning, whatever Serenity had said to Joey (because he had seen the look on her face before she had taken her brother aside, he strongly guessed that it hadn't been something positive) and how he had unintentionally hurt Joey. He looked down at the marked hand that was clinging to his Blue Eyes White Dragon sweater.

_'If they refuse to understand, fine! I know and he knows that I'm sorry, so I could really care less about what they think. I just hope that they won't go raise doubts in my puppy…'_ he thought grimly as he closed his eyes. After all, he knew that he could live quite well without their approval of his relationship; but to lose Joey would be something else entirely…

* * *

(1) Lovely song, it always makes me wanna dance with someone... but since nobody ever is around, I just have to imagine the dance... _-shrug-_

(2) I dunno if it's cruel or not of me to let Seto lose again, but I just couldn't resist... and besides, it's (usually) good to have a strong ambition...

(3) Originally, I had planned for it to be fluffy right here, but then I was inspired anew, so I made it a bit... what would it be called? Dramatic, maybe? (I'll not use a description without hinting my insecurity, because I tend to use expressions in a different sense than what others are used to...) -.-;;

(4) Call me nuts, but I sort of tried this out on myself, though not that extreme (and the marks were still quite visible the next day)...

(5) I took this nice little expression from Viva La Bam. Did you guys (if you watched it) see the episode when they go to Las Vegas to get Raab married? Well, sometimes they'd suddenly say "Noise!", therefore I interpreted it as "cool" (and even if that's wrong, I'm not gonna change it, but I figured that a little explanation couldn't hurt anyway).


	19. Chapter 19

Finally, Xmas vacation! And except for a few tests, there'll be no more school until February! _-cheers-_ I tell you, people, I'm feeling way better than I thought I would... (I had already feared that I might have to get my wisdom teeth removed in January, but the appointment has been postponed, so my new "expiration date" - don't worry, I'm only joking, but I'm really terrified of operations, doctors etc! - is set for the end of May) :D

I'd say that about three quarters of this chapter went fine to write, but then my thoughts were either preoccupied with the next few chapters (once again, that's all due to the music) or school _-sigh-_ I tried really hard to avoid this, but in the end I found myself forced to write a couple of "filler lines" in some places, so please don't kill me...! But now I can work on the new chapters "_in alter Frische_", as it is said so nicely in German ;) Hope you enjoy this anyway, and as usual, I'm looking forward to some feedback...

**Shia Ghost**: Wow... many thanks indeed for the review! Sure it counts enough for me, I'm the type of writer who practically freaks out over every single review I get ;) I know what you mean... I've read so many great stories, but I rarely manage to review because I really can't write constructive and/or inspiring reviews like you guys have managed to do so wonderfully... _-blush-_ Anyway, I'm so happy that you like this so much, I seriously never would have guessed that this story would find so darn much appreciation :))) 100 reviews?! Wow, that's a lot... and to think that I'm amazed that I even got _-checks stats-_ 70 so far... I guess that as long as I even get one, I'm happy ;)

**Solo's Orca**: Hehe, I was hoping that this chapter (or at least part of it) would strike someone as "cute"...

_Juhui_, December 24th! Today's time for presents here in Switzerland! _-yay-_ Hope you guys'll have a good time on the 25th or whenever you get your presents - and my present for you is this new chapter! (and the next one's coming along quite well, it shouldn't be too long before I can post that one as well)

**P.S: Happy holidays to all of you!! **

* * *

Joey's eyes snapped open at the sound of breaking glass. The sound reminded him strongly of waking up just as suddenly as back when he had been living with his father…

"Shit! Be quiet!" someone hissed.

"Can **I** help it if the glass was standing in the way?" someone asked back irritably.

"You're seriously blaming the **glass**…?!"

"Whatever. Let's get moving…"

A few shuffling noises later, the door opened and was closed so quietly a moment later that Joey barely heard it.

The blond yawned and shifted. Though he was more used to sleeping on the floor than most of the others, that didn't change anything about feeling stiff and even sore in some places. The first step to get rid of that was to stand up… As he attempted to do that, he felt how a weak tug protested his departure. Joey paused and looked at Seto, who was still asleep.

"Sorry, Seto," he sighed, "But I just **gotta** get up…" Moving carefully, he slipped away from Seto's arm, which he carefully guided back to the brunet's side so he wouldn't be disturbed. As he stood up and stretched thoroughly, he smiled as he watched the two brothers. Mokuba was hugging one of Seto's legs while his sibling had draped an arm loosely around his shoulders.

_'Where's a camera when you need one?'_ Joey thought. He reached down and lightly touched Seto's cheek. The other boy responded by leaning in a little bit to the touch. After a short caress, Joey got his coat and then went outside to see who was up so "early".

Bakura and Marik had been the noise-makers and were now currently rolling around in the snow as they had a rather rough play-fight.

"Hey guys, up already?" Joey called.

The two Yamis interrupted their fight and stared shortly at him, then Bakura playfully cuffed Marik's shoulder:

"See? I **told** you that you might have woken somebody up by breaking that glass…"

"He must have a very light sleep if he's the only one up and about… but say, how about a new challenge, Bakura?"

"Oh?" the thief asked interestedly, arching a black eyebrow, and when Marik nodded in the direction of the cabin, he grinned broadly. "Yes, that's interesting… Hey, Blondie, why don't you join in the fun?" he shouted.

"Looks more like a fight than fun to me," was the response.

"He differs between those things?" Marik wondered innocently.

"C'mon, I bet you're stiff and everything like everyone else, right? This'll loosen you up… unless you're chicken, of course," Bakura added.

"Don't you call me chicken!" Joey warned him.

"Prove the opposite," Marik suggested. One quick glance at Bakura was all it took to make a silent agreement to pounce on Joey when the time was right.

"You asked for it!" Joey told them with a laugh and stepped away from the cabin door, walking towards them. The other two waited until he was close enough that he wouldn't be able to escape them, and then they attacked. "Hey, two against one…! You sneaks!" he exclaimed as they pinned him down.

"Show us what you've got!" Marik prompted him. When Joey lunged at them, they declared his participation to be official, then they took on the new challenge of "fighting" him.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Not too much later than Joey, other people awakened as well. Ryou and Yugi gathered up the shards of the broken glass before helping Solomon to clean the place up a bit. While doing this, they began to wake the others up.

"Oh no… already?!" Tristan complained.

"Sorry, but I have to return the key by noon," Yugi explained as he woke Malik up. (1)

Ryou took over the duty of waking up the Kaiba brothers, though he decided that it might be better if Mokuba would handle Seto. "Mokuba, it's time to get up!" he said softly while gently brushing a few hair strands out of the boy's face.

Sleepily, Mokuba opened his eyes. "So early…?"

"Well, actually it's almost noon now, and we have to be out of here by then. Could you do me a favor and wake your brother up?"

Mokuba let go of Seto's leg, yawned and replied: "Sure, Ryou."

When Ryou went back to helping with the clean-up, Mokuba shook his brother's shoulders. "Seto, you've got to wake up now! We have to get going soon…" He paused when he noticed that Joey wasn't there. "Where's Joey? I thought he liked to sleep as long as possible…"

The first response he got was a groan as the elder tried to stretch, but let it be when he found that was too stiff to do that properly.

"What are you talking about, Mokuba?" he asked blearily.

"Joey. As far as I can tell, he isn't here," the youngster answered after quickly looking around – no, Joey definitely was not here.

"Neither are Bakura or Marik. They probably went outside," Ryou said as he walked by with a couple of glasses in his hands.

"No, guys, stop it! That's not fair… I can't take it anymore…!" a shaky voice from outside reached their ears.

"Joey…?" Mokuba wondered.

"Oh, to come across them **now**…" Malik sighed. "Marik usually is in very high spirits in the morning after a party… and as far as I can tell, so is Bakura…" Ryou nodded affirmatively to this.

"What are those psychos up to?" Seto wondered as he got to his feet again. _'God, I'm glad I don't do this often… sleeping in a bed is much better!'_ Ignoring the shrugs from Malik and Ryou, he went straight outside, not even bothering to put on his coat.

Joey was lying flat on his back in the snow and was once again almost crying because he was laughing so much (though it looked strongly as if he were suppressing it). Bakura was sitting on his legs, effectively rendering all of Joey's attempted kicks useless, and was tickling the teen mercilessly. But as if that wasn't enough, Marik somehow managed to keep Joey's wrists pinned to the ground with one hand, and with the other he was helping Bakura in the same manner.

"Blondie, you're really panting like a puppy dog!" Bakura sniggered. It was true: Joey had laughed a lot, but he had constantly tried to keep it down because he didn't know that the others were awake by now, and the result of that was that his sides were aching so much that the rest of his laughter was little more than panting.

"L-Listen… you… win… m-mercy…" he pleaded.

"You're not feeling sore anymore, then?" Marik asked.

"Very funny…" Joey moaned.

"Something about this looks very wrong," a new voice suddenly said.

Bakura looked up and replied: "Good morning!" He sounded as if he were reading the newspaper and drinking coffee instead of sitting on a teen who was completely at his (and Marik's) mercy.

"I'm only saying this once, so pay attention: Let. Him. Go," Seto told them in a voice that spelled trouble.

"Or else what?" Bakura retorted amusedly, giving Joey another poke and making the blond twitch.

"Do I need to state the obvious?"

"Say, if you're sore as well, we could –" Marik began, but then two voices called from the cabin:

"Bakura! Why don't you come help us out here a little instead of tormenting other people?"

"I agree… not everyone's as bright as you guys after just a few hours of sleep…"

"Are you blaming us for having fun?" Bakura asked incredulously.

"I wouldn't go so far as to say that…" Ryou shrugged. "But for your information: we're just about done with cleaning up, so we'll be leaving soon anyway."

"Typical!" Bakura snorted, "Always when I'm having fun…!"

"You heard him. Well?" Seto prompted.

"We were just trying to help!" Marik protested, but he and Bakura stood up anyhow.

"Next time, just don't do it until I almost can't breathe anymore," Joey advised them as he took Seto's hand to get to his feet again.

"Was it that bad?" Marik wondered.

"Kinda," Joey replied, slowly catching his breath again. Bakura and Marik merely shrugged.

"By the way, Kaiba: aren't you forgetting something?" Yugi now appeared beside Ryou and Malik.

"Such as…?" the CEO asked slowly.

"The puzzle! You owe Yami a hint at the solution!"

Seto gave a suppressed groan at this direct reminder of the duel and with that his loss.

"Hey, you promised," Joey reminded him with a smile that told him to take it easy.

"Fine… Alright, Yami, show me what you've got…" Seto drawled as he went back to the cabin. A couple of minutes later, Yami reappeared, looking very happy.

"I don't know how I could go wrong there… it all makes sense now!" he said excitedly.

"Thanks, Kaiba," Yugi smiled at the tall teen.

"Whatever," was the muttered response which was followed by a headshake due to how excited the Pharaoh was over now being able to solve the puzzle.

Shortly thereafter, the clean-up was done, and it was time to go home. At least Bakura and Marik made plans to get together once more in the holidays, figuring that there wouldn't be much else to do when their Hikaris were busy studying.

"You could help me if you don't want to be bored!" Ryou suggested.

Bakura only made a noise of disgust and shuddered. "Ugh, no! Just **looking** at some of the things you've written down gives me a headache…"

"Really? That history stuff looks sort of interesting," Marik said.

"Say what?!" Bakura almost yelped. Marik just grinned.

"It's always so helpful when you test me on historical dates…" Malik purred and gave his lover a peck on the cheek; Marik looked very pleased with himself.

"But… but…" Bakura looked lost.

"You should try it sometime. Anything can be enjoyable if you're with someone you love," Marik encouraged him.

The others smiled at that unexpectedly cute statement from the dark Egyptian. Joey grinned and nudged Seto, who lightly let his hand rest on Joey's waist. Bakura gave a small sigh.

"Well… maybe I could give it a try."

"Think of it as a New Year's resolution," Yugi suggested brightly.

"I don't make such things," the thief replied with a snort.

"Or a background guideline," the short teen said.

"Sounds better," Bakura agreed with a mutter. Ryou beamed, obviously looking forward very much to study with his Yami – however long Bakura would be able to stand it before he would simply **have** to do something else.

"Yugi, we should get going so we can return the key… more or less on time," Solomon finished after a short pause in which he consulted his watch.

"Oh, right…"

"In that case, you'll need a car," Tristan pointed out. There was a moment of silence in which Mokuba in particular noticed some of the looks that were exchanged, and he plucked at his brother's coat sleeve.

"Seto, since we're surely not in a hurry to get home, why don't we give them a lift?"

The brunet clicked his tongue. "How did I know that you would say that…?" When Mokuba used the puppy-eyes because he was afraid that the elder would say no, Seto managed to resist for one second before he gave in to the silent plea: "Alright, but this is exceptional."

For now, the others seemed to ignore his last remark and cheered instead. One phone call later, a fancy Kaiba Corp. limousine came to the cabin, and then the grand detour on the way home commenced.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

When they were home again, the first thing they did was have a shower. After that (and feeling much better), Seto checked his emails, and when he came across a certain message, he went to Joey's bedroom with the intention of informing the other about the message's content. He dropped that idea, however, when the sound of running water in the bathroom was practically drowned out by very loud music mixed with Joey's voice as he sang along with a few lines. Seto grinned; on one occasion between Christmas and New Year's, he had discovered that Joey apparently liked to sing in the shower – it was as if he were pretending to be a rock star or something. He didn't always hit the notes accurately, yet it certainly wasn't the type of singing that got you running pell-mell in the opposite direction. Deciding to let his boyfriend play "rock star" in peace, Seto went back to the study, for he figured that the blond might just visit him like he had done after decorating the tree.

His assumption turned out to be correct: a little while later, Joey peeked inside.

"Seto, d'you mind…?"

"Ah, it's good that you've come, puppy; there's something I'd like to show you," Seto said, looking up from his laptop screen.

"Really? What is it?" Joey asked and entered the study. Without saying so, Seto gave him a lot of credit for remembering the rule that barging into his study or entering it without his permission was strictly forbidden.

"The schedule for the upcoming tests," Seto answered and opened up the attachment.

"Great…" Joey groaned and looked over the brunet's shoulder. For a moment, there was only silence, but then he cried out in dismay.

"What?!" Seto asked, frowning because his right ear had gotten the full blast of the cry.

"I don't believe it! God, no! Look at that! Aw, man, this bites…!" Joey ranted, gesturing wildly at the electronic document.

"A penny for your thoughts," Seto proposed.

"Look!" Joey pointed to a specific date – January 25th. "A math test – a **math** test – on my birthday! Please tell me that I'm only dreaming…!" he whined. (2)

"Oh…" Seto looked at the date – "math" was printed in bold red letters underneath the number 25 – then back at Joey, who looked crestfallen.

"I wish I wouldn't have a birthday this year… not when there's a math test on that same day…" Joey felt horrible: in his opinion, the end of the world could have come just as well.

"What do you want for your birthday, anyway?" Seto asked.

"To have the math test cancelled."

Seto shook his head. "I would grant you that wish if I could, but I can't. Isn't there anything else?"

"I can't think of anything right now…" Joey mumbled absently as he was already imagining the moment of receiving a bold-printed, red "D" – or worse yet, a "F" – on his papers…

Meanwhile, Seto stared at him intently as he pondered over what could be done for that birthday. Quite abruptly, a thought came to him. "Puppy, I have a suggestion: we take that inevitable exam, but on the 26th – which is a school-free day anyhow – we'll go to… let's say New York, for example, on a daytrip. You can call the shots, and I'll take on all the expenses…"

"…New York?! For real?" Joey asked incredulously. _'How could he know that I'm practically __**dying**__ to go there someday?!'_ (3)

"If you have another wish –" Seto started to say, but was unable to continue because Joey hugged him so tightly that breathing was impossible for a few crucial moments. "…I presume that you agree with my proposal," he remarked faintly when Joey let go of him a bit and was giving him a look that expressed his excitement.

"You bet! I've always wanted to go there! Now all I've gotta do is make sure that I don't go nuts because of that confounded test…"

"I'll make sure that won't happen. And I'm quite sure that you'll pass it."

"That's way optimistic," Joey sighed, "I'm hopeless with numbers!"

"Don't give up before you haven't tried," Seto advised him as he printed out the schedule. Once that was done, he passed it to Joey along with a pen. "Show me where you could use some help, and I'll see what I can do."

"But you'll be working again next week… I don't see how you plan to give me private lessons as well." Joey frowned as he skimmed over the important dates. He made one circle someplace, then another somewhere else plus a few more. When that was over, Seto took a look at it, being quiet as he already thought about what learning aids he could make. Joey misinterpreted the silence and the unblinking stare and got a doubtful look. After a while, Seto looked up from the paper.

"You don't need to look at me like that; I promised to help you, and that's exactly what I'll do."

"Thanks a lot, Seto."

"Don't mention it. We'll start on Monday evening. Not a lot at once, we'll do this step by step; that's a better learning method anyhow. Okay?"

"Gotcha." He kissed Seto's cheek, then left so the brunet could continue to work. When the door clicked shut, Seto still heard him marvel: "Wow, New York… far out…!"

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

On Monday morning, a lone alarm clock went off at 6 o'clock. A very sleepy-looking Seto dragged himself into the bathroom, but when he emerged from it ten minutes later, he looked almost fully awake; all that was still missing was a coffee, then he would be ready to go. While he waited for the machine to fill his cup, he made a short note which he left on the table – a reminder for Joey to go over a first batch of chemistry notes. At precisely 20 minutes past six, Seto left the house. Three more hours would go by until Joey would finally wake up…

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Sometime around half past seven that evening, Seto arrived back at home. For a short moment as he came in at the door, he thought about saying something like "I'm home!", but then decided against it. He hadn't done such a thing often before, and like now, there really was no need for that: just like always, Mokuba came to greet him.

"Hi Seto!" he said cheerfully and hugged the elder.

"Good evening, Mokuba. Had a nice day?" Seto asked as he hung up his coat.

"Yeah; the usual, I'd say."

Seto nodded, then followed his brother to the kitchen. There, Joey was sitting at the table and looking through his notes. He looked as if he would rather be doing something else, but at least he had enough discipline to follow the reminder's advice.

"Hello Joey," Seto said as he laid a hand on the other's head.

"Hi! How was work?" Joey asked brightly.

Seto sat down next to him and shrugged. "More or less the same as always at this time of year. At least half of them are still caught up in the holidays – and they still try to fool me, making up all sorts of excuses…"

"You didn't fire anyone, though, did you?" Mokuba asked.

"No; however, I made it clear that I want them to get with the program again. Sometimes I really wish that I could run the entire company on my own," Seto mused.

"You do enough already," Mokuba argued.

The brunet just shook his head a bit to indicate that he didn't want to talk about that anymore – this implied that they had argued over that issue before. He opened his silver briefcase and took out a couple of sheets. "By the way, puppy: I've prepared these exercises. I suggest that you try to solve them, and then we'll have a look at it. I'll do my best to explain any obscurities you might come across."

"…And you did this… When?" Joey asked, staring at the numerous neatly-structured examples plus the theoretical questions.

"Lunch break… and on those few occasions in which I had nothing to do for a brief amount of time," Seto added.

"You forfeited your lunch break?!" Joey frowned. "That's not healthy."

"I'm fine. Now, how about putting your knowledge to the test?"

"Not until you eat something – I bet you haven't had anything today yet, right?" Joey asked, narrowing his eyes in suspicion.

"Okay, okay…" Seto muttered defensively and went to get himself something to eat. Joey made it clear that he didn't think that it was enough, but his boyfriend insisted that he didn't need more. After that, they went to the living room, where Joey took on the problems, armed with a pencil. He chose the (in Seto's opinion) uncomfortable position of doing that while lying on the floor on his stomach. Mokuba was sitting on the couch next to Seto and was playing another one of his new video games – without sounds in order not to disturb Joey. The elder Kaiba took turns in watching his brother play, helping out with a riddle or two, and making sure that Joey was really doing the exercises. It worked pretty well until the blond got to the section of chemical equations – he had always hated this particular part because it reminded him of algebra… He looked up at the TV and had just tuned in for a new riddle– Before he could finish reading it, he was suddenly facing Seto.

"Concentrate, dear puppy… you're almost done."

"This is so complicated…!" Joey sighed, looking back at the half-solved problem he had been working on just before.

"Just give it your best shot."

Muttering to himself, Joey obeyed and made another attempt. A while later, he was finished and handed the paper to Seto.

"…Well, as far as I can tell, it's really those equations that get to you, right?"

"I hate equations."

"I guessed as much. Look, first you must make sure that it adds up in the end…"

Joey knitted his brows together as he really tried hard to follow the explanations he was given. Seto kept citing new examples as if he either had an invisible textbook he could look at or as if he had learned one of those by heart. After a while, his curiosity made Mokuba take a look at it as well – and his response to Joey's question of why he did that was simply:

"I want to know everything my brother knows."

This made Seto smile – the youngster rarely missed an opportunity to idolize him, and although he at times was rather flattered by this, he sometimes wished that Mokuba had other idols too… although that could actually already be the case, for all he knew.

"If I were you, I'd wait until I'd have the subject at school before learning stuff like this," Joey said with a reminiscent sigh as he remembered how chemistry had once been of no importance at all to him (and he was sure that someday it wouldn't anymore).

A while later, he absolutely couldn't help it that he couldn't take much more of the whole equation-adding-up thing, and he immediately made a hasty excuse, saying that he really wasn't used to math-like stuff anymore – the last day he had had that seemed ages ago. But contrarily to what he feared, Seto showed consideration.

"It's okay, we still have plenty of time left."

"I still feel kinda bad… you know, with you explaining everything…"

"It's not a problem."

"For sure?"

Seto sighed. "Yes, for sure. Look, there's something I should finish for tomorrow, I must go do that now… Mokuba, I want you to be in bed by 12."

"Aw, can't I stay up a bit longer than that?" the boy complained.

"12," Seto insisted, "I'll come to check on you before I go to bed."

"Fine – but only if you promise me not to stay up too long yourself. I mean, not only four hours of sleep or something," came the reply. Seto looked a bit doubtful, so Mokuba turned to Joey: "You make sure that he goes to bed on time, okay?"

"Yes, sir!" the blond answered with a wink and a salute. Mokuba grinned triumphantly; he knew that he could count on him because they both had the same opinion concerning Seto's sleeping habits.

"I sense a conspiracy…" Seto remarked with a small laugh as he gave the papers back to Joey before going to his study.

Being true to his word, he went to check on Mokuba at midnight. After that, he stayed up for almost one more hour and had just changed into his pajamas when Joey stopped by on his own way to bed. They said goodnight by means of a passionate kiss, and soon all was quiet for the remainder of the night.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

When Seto came home on Thursday evening of that week, it was immediately apparent that he was in a bad mood. It started with the slamming of the front door.

"Big brother?" Mokuba stuck his head out of the living room, and his face fell a bit. "Oh… bad day?"

"Quite," the elder answered curtly as he swept past his brother, heading straight for the stairs. Before he could disappear into his room, though, Joey came out of his own room, holding a sheet of paper in one hand and a pencil in the other. He looked very happy.

"Hey there, Seto! Man, I think I'm really starting to get –!" He faltered when he saw the brunet's grim expression. "What's up with you?"

"Don't ask!" Seto retorted harshly as he opened his bedroom door with more force than necessary.

"But –"

"But nothing!" Seto hissed. He was about to slam the door shut right in the face of the other teen when he saw the downcast and apologetic look that was shot at him. It reminded him of a similar look he had faced after losing the duel as well as his self-control for a moment… He took a deep breath and said in a calmer but still quite strained voice: "Listen, Joey, just give me a bit of time to calm down. I'll talk to you later, okay?"

"Yeah…" With a sigh, Joey turned away as the door closed. He went to the living room and flopped down on the couch next to Mokuba.

"Well, that's my brother after a bad day," the boy remarked.

"Yeah… he kinda reminded me of how he was back when we hated each other," Joey said, tossing his paper onto the table. Mokuba picked it up and looked at it. "I wanted to show him this – I think I'm really getting better at this stuff – but I guess it'll have to wait…"

"Don't worry; when he's calmed down again, he'll be all ears. The question is: how bad was whatever happened?" Mokuba told him.

"Sounds like you have a lot of experience with this."

"Do I ever!" Mokuba replied, rolling his eyes a bit, "Once, there was this very important multi-million-dollar contract someone was supposed to draw up, and then it got deleted before my brother even got to see it. It was quite a mess; it took them forever to find the file again, and then it turned out that it was badly done in the first place. Seto was so furious… if looks could have killed, he would've been a mass murderer for sure. That was the first time he pulled the stay-at-the-office-all-night-long-to-fix-the-mess-those-idiots-made stunt." Mokuba giggled. "Sorry… I know it really shouldn't be funny, and it **wasn't** back then, but now it actually **is** when I think about how Seto was ranting – so unlike how he is today…!"

"I see," Joey said with a grin, "So you really can't do much else than wait until he's cooled off?"

"Exactly. …You know, Joey," Mokuba said as he leaned against the blond while they watched something random on the TV, "You and Seto look so good together, I wish you'd never have to fight again or anything."

"Well, ups and downs come with everything in life. But after all he's done for me, I'll make sure to have extra patience with him if we'd get into a fight," Joey assured him.

"Thanks; I'm sure that he would be very unhappy if he were to lose you – and so would I."

Joey only could agree, especially when he thought about how much Seto had regretted to have hurt him. It had been a clear sign that he certainly didn't wish for Joey to be hurt, be that physically or psychically. And his repeated apologies, his plea for forgiveness had shown that he worried about losing him…

"The same goes for me, kid."

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

It was around half past ten that Seto showed himself again. The others were watching what looked like a drama.

"Little brother, are you sure it's a good idea for you to watch a drama before going to bed?" he asked, supporting himself on the couch lean with his lower arms.

"Aw, Seto, it's not gory or anything… it's just a bit sad," Mokuba told him.

"As long as you're okay with it, it's fine." He gave Joey a short nudge. "I interrupted what you wanted to tell me when I got home – what was it that you had wanted to say?"

"Oh, that!" Joey grinned triumphantly and handed Seto his paper. "I did the exercises you sent me from work this morning, and I think it didn't go too bad…"

Seto swiftly looked over the moderately readable handwriting of the other, then smiled and nodded. "Indeed; this looks quite good. Just some more or less minor mistakes here and there, but I definitely see improvement. Well done, puppy."

"Couldn't have done it without you."

"You're not giving yourself enough credit."

"Nonsense, I wouldn't have gotten it on my own."

Seeing that he wouldn't be able to persuade him otherwise, Seto shrugged and affectionately ruffled the blond hair.

"What got you all worked up, Seto?" Mokuba asked, figuring that it was now safe to pose the question.

His brother answered with mild exasperation: "Some moron managed to format his hard drive – don't ask me how, it's beyond my comprehension. A couple of important files went down the drain thanks to that incredible display of stupidity… I told him that it would be quite recommendable to take some lessons on computers." When Joey gave him a rather weird look, he persisted: "No, seriously, sometimes I wonder how come **I'm** the one taking computer science and not some of those nitwits! Such a basic mistake shouldn't happen, especially not in **my** company," he added darkly.

"He must've been **very** lost in thoughts," Mokuba remarked as he wondered what the unfortunate employee had been thinking.

"I'm surprised his mind found its way back to reality," Seto agreed with another pinch of his at times biting sarcasm, "Perhaps it would be better if **I'd** supervise the selection of new employees…"

"And you'd prefer to do the job interviews as well, I know," Mokuba interrupted him, "Big brother, just… stick to what you have to do in **your** position, okay?"

"Yeah; that's what you hired other people for, right?" Joey said.

"Yes, but I've worked very hard to get the company the reputation it has today. And although the holidays have just ended, I have every right to expect a most decent amount of efficiency from all of them."

"Before you get all huffy again, why don't you have a seat?" Joey suggested, taking the liberty of changing the subject. Seto pursed his lips a bit at this sudden change, but answered all the same:

"…Why not?"

He climbed over the couch lean and claimed the spot between the other two, and they finished watching the movie together. After that, Mokuba had what he called a "therapeutic talk" with Seto, and Joey learned that the boy did that more and more frequently to help the elder deal with the stress that primarily came from his job. And although the very few people who knew about this considered Mokuba to be quite young for that, Seto had absolutely refused to open up to anyone else (until now, at least), so who could be better for that task…?

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Over the weekend, Joey made sure that they had a fair share of leisure time and studying. Because of his improvements in chemistry, they added a bit of economics to the subject matter – of course, for Seto, this was really just pure repetition, and Joey had the impression that there was no question the brunet couldn't answer.

"You know, in times like these, I really wish I were as smart as you," he sighed when they called it quits for Sunday (the first test, English, was on Tuesday).

"Putting yourself down again, aren't you? Look at it this way: in the majority of cases – including you, I'm quite sure – a fair amount of intelligence is given. What matters is how you use it."

"You sound like a psychiatrist! All right then, care to analyze my complex a bit more?" Joey asked teasingly as he pretended to be lying on a sofa for a therapy, only that his head was on Seto's lap.

"I wouldn't use the expression 'complex'… I'd describe it as an occasional disturbance of your self-esteem."

"Hey, **you're** the one who's practically perfect!" Joey said, crossing his arms. But while he was going about the whole thing in a more casual manner, Seto was quite serious, as usual.

"I'm not perfect," he retorted, looking the other straight in the eye.

"You used to sound much more different a couple of months ago."

"Well, things were different back then. I don't need to pretend around you now," Seto said, flicking a hair strand out of the other's face.

"Why pretend around anybody?"

"Looks who's talking! Who was the one always putting on such a happy-go-lucky attitude despite experiencing abuse from a parent?" Seto questioned, raising an eyebrow.

"Don't you remember what I told the judge? If people would've started talking and the whole thing had leaked out, he might've ended up killing somebody," Joey answered in a downcast voice.

"I do remember. It could have been you…"

"That wasn't even an empty threat, either. It gave me a bunch of sleepless nights…"

Seto ran his fingers through the blond hair. "Speaking of sleeping; will you come to me tonight again?"

"Even though tomorrow's Monday?"

"What does that have to do with it? Ah, I understand: I won't wake you up at six when I get up, if that's what you're worried about…"

"That's a relief. Alright, I accept," Joey grinned.

"I'll go check on Mokuba, then I'll be right there. You go on ahead," Seto told him before getting the blond to move so he could stand up again.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

A while later, Joey lay in Seto's bed, eyes closed and simply waiting. So far, he thought, he was feeling quite confident when thinking about the upcoming tests (except math, but he would deal with that later) – chances were high that he would get his average B's and C's or maybe even better…

He had just breathed in again when the feeling of warm lips pressed against his own made him hold his breath for a moment. Just when he started to kiss back, the touch ended, and he looked at Seto, who was just above him.

"What were you smiling so smugly about, puppy?"

"Smiling? Oh… must've been because I don't have that bad of a feeling for the next weeks."

"That's a good sign. Now, how do you feel about having a bit of fun?" Seto asked with that playfully taunting tone of voice.

"Definitely sounds like a plan to me. Bring it on!"

And Seto did. He went for the ideal spot at this point in time: Joey's neck. The blond teen simply wasn't able to do anything at all about that – very vaguely, he wondered whether he should "work on that point" so he wouldn't be quite so defenseless in the future – but when Seto let off him again, he regained the ability to fight back. He wasn't sure exactly **where** the brunet had his weak point, so he didn't bother with that and chose a random spot to kiss instead. In any case, Seto practically purred with delight, and Joey loved the caresses he received in return as a gesture of deep affection. Consequentially, he wished that Seto wouldn't have to go to work the next day, but he also knew that when it came to that, decisions weren't changed. Another thing that couldn't be changed, though, was the pleasure they both were giving in to…

* * *

(1) When I had my 18th birthday party, we had to return it by 9 am... that was such a bastard, especially because no one helped to clean up _-sigh-_

(2) Yes, I'm cruel again... I remember how the same thing happened to one of my classmates once; it made me be aware yet again of how lucky I am - my birthday is always smack in the middle of summer vacation :D

(3) Such an awesome city... I think that so far, I've never met someone who doesn't want to go there someday... _-grin-_

If there are any prepositions/expressions that are profoundly weird or something, notify me, I beg you! I know that I'm badly influenced by my German, so weird mistakes can be made... ;) (and besides, I am my own beta-reader, so it can happen that I oversee a mistake or two)


	20. Chapter 20

Hi guys! I hope you're all doing fine and had a great Christmas and a successful start into the year 2008!

Mmh, vacation's soooooooooo fine... these are the days to go to bed at 2 am and get up at 10 am... I couldn't be more happy. _-lol-_ And now another chapter's complete... well, I'll just shut up now and let you read it :)

**Solo's Orca**: New York is way cool, I'd go back there right now if I could... it's a shame that it's so expensive, but I'm definitely going back there someday! Hehe, we'll see - though you probably know what you can expect from me, right? ;) Oh, so do I... I wish you lots of luck for them already!

**Frathworth and Butts**: _-lol-_ I love your questions! Sometimes people say that I ask pointless questions as well (e.g. when I ask myself how come some dudes came up with all these Math/Physics things... honestly!) In response to the apple question: I think they can, 'cause I once ate one that really tasted weird, really as if it were flour in my mouth... yech, gross! ;) Thanks for the compliments! Hope this chapter can make you laugh once or twice... be sure to tell me if it does! Ooh, you have a Wii too? (my brother has one...) What's it like to play with it? I mean, I gotta ask you, 'cause Chris would never let me even touch his... _-sigh-_ Many thanks for your feedback, lots of hugs and kisses to you too :)))

* * *

As usual, Joey woke up shortly after nine. The spot beside him in the bed where Seto had slept last night was empty. For a few more minutes, the blond stayed where he was and thought about how they had treated each other. They had been so close to taking it a step further…

Grinning like a Cheshire cat, Joey sauntered downstairs. "Morning, Mokuba," he greeted the raven-haired boy as he came into the kitchen.

"Hi Joey. So, are you ready for– What's that?"

"What's what?"

"Your neck." Mokuba leaned over for a better view, and no sooner had Joey gotten a quizzical look on his face when the younger Kaiba exclaimed gleefully: "Ooh, a love bite! Now you're marked…"

"For real? Well, he really **did** go for my neck a lot…" Joey replied thoughtfully, gingerly touching the spot.

"You know, whenever I saw one of those on TV, the bearer – almost always girls, I think – wore turtlenecks. Will you do that as well, Joey?"

"Hmm… I dunno. I **might** – I mean, as far as I know, Seto wants to keep the thing about us a secret a little longer."

"Did you give him one too?"

Once more, the boy amazed Joey, who thought it was remarkable how the youngster could be quite like his age, yet sometimes he also was very mature…

"Um… I didn't check. He probably doesn't know about this, either."

"Aha. As far as I can tell, you sound as if you'll wear one of those sweaters – but you'd need to have one in the first place. We could go to the mall, and you could wear the scarf to hide it for now," Mokuba said.

"You're probably right… can't imagine that the teacher would keep quiet if I'd be wearing a scarf in class," Joey muttered.

"Great! I'll go get dressed, then we'll go!" Mokuba replied eagerly and bounded out of the kitchen.

"Wait, don't you want to finish your breakfast?" Joey yelled after him, but it was already too late. Somewhat helplessly, he looked at the abandoned bowl of cereal and said to himself: "Man, you'd almost think that he put additional sugar in the cereal or something!" With a sigh, he took the bowl to the sink and rinsed it out before going back upstairs to get dressed as well. It was only when they were already on their way to the mall when he noticed with dismay that he had managed to forget to eat breakfast…

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

"Ah, is that a new sweater I see? What's the special occasion, puppy?" Seto asked when he got home that evening and found the other teen putting dinner on the table.

"You," Joey answered.

"Or rather: because of what you've done," Mokuba added.

"Because of what I've done." That was not a question, but rather a statement, a repetition. "And what might that be, if I may ask?"

"This speaks for itself," Joey said as he rolled down the collar of his new sweater.

There was an interlude of silence as Seto stared at the mark. Finally, he gave a reply: "Well, I don't suppose that you're expecting an apology from me… are you?"

"No, of course not. After all, I liked getting it," Joey assured him with a wink as he rolled the collar up again.

"Nice work, big brother… Sometimes you really are surprising," Mokuba giggled and gave him a playful poke in the side which made the elder flinch a bit.

"I could say the same thing about you, Mokuba! Honestly, I really wonder about you… How do you even know about what we're dealing with here?"

"I'm not a little kid anymore."

"You should be grateful; that way, you might get around having 'the talk' with him," Joey said as he raised his eyebrows pointedly.

"Don't give him ideas!" Seto retorted with a hinted shushing gesture. Unfortunately for him, the effect was certainly not the one he had aimed for: the other two started laughing.

"Well, Seto, just remember: if you don't tell me, I'll learn the basics at school – and then I'll simply ask you if I don't understand something."

"Mokuba!"

"What? I have full confidence in your knowledge."

"Thank heavens you're only twelve," Seto muttered with a short headshake.

"Only twelve?!" Mokuba exclaimed in mock frustration. Then he pursed his lips in a pout whose power was almost equal to that of his notorious puppy-eyes. "**Only** twelve…?"

Seto ruffled the boy's black hair. "Just kidding… **already** twelve, of course."

Mokuba beamed and Joey couldn't stifle a snicker. "Alright, now that we've dealt with that, how about having some dinner? It'll get cold if you wait much longer," he told Seto, grabbing him by the shoulders and steering him toward the table.

"I'm coming already…" the brunet defended himself.

"I wish you guys lots of luck for the tests, by the way," Mokuba remarked once they had sat down.

"Thank you, little brother. Are you having any as well, if I may ask?" Seto replied.

"No – they'd only be minor ones, I guess." The boy thought for a moment, then added: "Oh, and we'll be having a substitute teacher in history, starting next week."

"Don't forget to show respect."

"You don't need to tell me all the time, big brother…"

"Actually, I meant that you could pass that on to your comrades. You see, from what I hear, they seem to be a pretty wild bunch," Seto explained to Joey.

"Hey, can we help it if it's so boring at times? And besides, my marks are quite good," Mokuba protested.

"As long as that's the case, I'm not reprimanding you," the elder assured him.

"Are you at the front when you decide that it's time for action?" Joey asked interestedly.

Seto got a slightly reproachful look on his face, thus suggesting that he knew the answer, and Mokuba answered brightly: "I used to be, but once I made a poor aim with a paper plane… it hit Ms. Harper right on the back of her head. I swear, she was like a volcano that had just erupted." He shrugged shortly. "I've resolved to simply doodle or pass notes on a good opportunity ever since."

"One should probably feel sorry for those teachers," Seto said dryly.

"Oh, there are some days that are better and some that aren't… but **you'd** go mad for sure, Seto," Mokuba told him with another one of his mischievous grins.

Seto rolled his eyes exasperatedly while Joey amused himself with imagining his boyfriend desperately trying to restore order in a classroom full of gone-wild kids – that would be such a laugh…

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

On Tuesday, nervousness was in the air, though it was nothing yet compared to how it would be when the math test would take place in not even two weeks' time. The babble of the students died down as the English teacher, Mr. Davidson, stood up, papers in one hand while asking for them to be silent.

"Class, before I hand out the test papers, there are two things I'd like to announce: first, don't forget the school treat on the 29th – I don't think that you'll want to miss out on a bit of fun after all the hard work you'll have done by then."

A couple of people cheered, and most of them started talking again – Mr. Davidson was one of the very few teachers who were liked by almost everyone, thanks to his easygoing attitude. Just when quite a few of the girls in the class turned to Seto, wanting to ask whether he would dance with them on that evening, the teacher continued:

"Also, I thought that we could do something more. My suggestion is the following: in the first week of February, we could go to a vacation resort in the mountains for a week of… well, whatever you like. Comments?"

They did have comments, and those were primarily cheers and yells of approval. When the commotion died down a bit, opportunities to ask questions were taken:

"Where would we go to?" Tristan asked.

"The place is called Ski Beech. It's about an 8-hour drive from here." (1)

"What can we do there?" Malik asked.

"Just about anything, as far as I can tell. Skiing, sledding… even ice-skating, if I'm not mistaken."

"Wow, ice-skating…" Tea sighed dreamily. There was no need to question what she would want to do.

"I'll put all the essential information on a handout which I'll have one of my colleagues give to you within the next weeks. But now it's time for the test…"

Despite the moans of "Aw…" from a few people, they were happy, looking forward to that outing. Not even the test could dampen their spirits.

90 minutes later, all the papers were handed in, and as they filed out of the building again, the first week of vacation was on everyone's lips.

"That'll be so cool! God, I can't wait until February…!" Joey said excitedly.

"D'you all already know what you'll do?" Malik wondered.

"Ice-skating!" Tea said without a second of hesitation.

"Sledding would be nice," Ryou said cheerfully.

"Hmm… how about if we'd go together?" Malik proposed, "And if we can convince Bakura and Marik to do the same, maybe we can keep an eye on them!"

"Sure you can. Your idea sounds good, who knows what they might do…" Ryou muttered as he tried to imagine the combination of a (steep) slope and Bakura. The result was probably in the same range as the combo with snowballs… And judging by the way that Malik rolled his eyes, the same could be expected of Marik.

"Yugi, what do you want to do?" Yami asked in the meantime.

"I'm not sure yet… what about you?"

"I'll do whatever you do," the spirit replied.

"Well… hmm, this is a tough decision… although… actually, I like the idea of ice-skating."

"Hey, then you guys could come with me!" Tea offered.

"Yeah!" Yugi agreed with his usual smile. Yami nodded in agreement, putting his trust into the one of them who was at least a **bit** more experienced with winter sports.

"A week in the mountains… Mr. Davidson really rocks!" Tristan was raving, "So, man, what are you going for?" he asked, giving Joey's shoulder a nudge with his fist.

His friend grinned. "I dunno yet, but definitely something with some action in it. You?"

"Hard to say. Shall we do the same thing?"

"I'm with you."

"Don't I have any say in this?" Seto asked a bit irritably.

"Hey, Joey doesn't belong to you and nobody else, Kaiba," Tristan shot back immediately.

"I know, but –"

"Look, either you do something else or you come with us. I don't suppose that that would be too much cooperation, right?"

"You're blinded by prejudice again, Taylor."

"Well, excuse **me** if you dug your own grave…"

"Just get along already!" Joey interrupted with a small groan.

Seto's face remained expressionless while Tristan snorted. At the school gates, they all said goodbye to each other before going home to finish studying for the chemistry test. Just before Seto and Joey got into the limousine that was waiting for them, Tristan held his friend back for one last remark:

"Dude, since when do you wear turtlenecks?"

A faint blush appeared on Joey's cheeks. "Well…"

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

"…don't think I'd like anything of that."

"Of course you would! Just give it a try!"

"And besides, I don't want Mr. Spikehead to keep reprimanding me all the time!"

"Aw, c'mon, I'll talk to Tristan…"

Mokuba looked up from the comic book he was reading when he heard that discussion as the two older teens walked through the front door. What was all that about? He guessed that since it sounded like Joey was trying to pull a persuasion act on Seto, he would side with the blond as usual.

"Hi guys! How did the test go?" he asked when they sauntered into the living room.

Seto shook his head before answering; his sibling was sitting on the couch with an open comic book in his lap and the TV running in the background. "Why is the TV on? That's a waste if you're doing something else anyway…"

"No, it isn't! I'm… well, practicing multi-tasking!" Mokuba explained after a brief pause.

Joey burst out laughing while Seto stared at the youngster as if he had just turned into a girl wearing a pink dress.

"Mokuba, please tell me that you're **not** being serious…"

"But I **am** – more or less, at least! You see, I read one chapter, then watch a bit of TV, then try to do both. Anyway, you still owe me an answer, remember?"

Seto decided to drop the issue of trying to do multiple things at the same time and gave his brother what he was asking for: "It went fine…"

"Great! And you, Joey?"

"Should be okay, really."

"Oh yeah, and if I'm allowed to ask: what's with the whole thing about Seto needing to try something?"

"Oh, that!" came the excited reply as Joey flopped down on the couch, "Well, the English teacher said that he'd take us to a vacation resort in the mountains for a week in February! We were talking about what we'd want to do…" He gave Mokuba a brief outline of the semi-conflict, ignoring the way how Seto crossed his arms and glared at him. "Me, I think I'd want to go skiing, and I suggested that, but a certain someone claims that he neither wants to do that nor anything else!" he finished.

"Skiing is great! I bet you'd have a lot of fun, Seto!" Mokuba cheerfully tried to convince the brunet.

"No thanks – I'd prefer to come home in one piece," the elder replied dryly.

"Oh, **that's** what you're afraid of? But you know, more people get injured in car accidents every year than when they're skiing!" Sensing Seto's resistance, he added: "Hey, the ski championships are on TV this weekend! You ought to watch a race or two; perhaps that would convince you otherwise!"

"You really watch **anything**, don't you?" Seto asked, one eyebrow raised.

"I didn't know that you considered sports to be rubbish, big brother."

"Most things on television **are** rubbish…"

"Aw, c'mon, those races are fun to watch!" Joey spoke up.

"I thought next week's tests all require a lot of studying and that you want to pass them as well…"

"Sure I do, but I can't go over my notes all weekend long! You know, some relaxation in-between!"

"Oh, please!" Seto said exasperatedly and left the living room.

"That was definitely his stubborn side," Mokuba remarked.

"Yeah. It's probably just because he doesn't know how to ski – but I don't either, so I thought that we could learn together. I bet Tristan would teach us."

"Tristan knows how to ski?"

"Yeah. His parents go on winter vacation with him every now and then. If only he and Seto would get along better…"

"Listen: you talk to Tristan, and I'll handle Seto. I simply **know** that he'd want to do the same thing you do, he just needs a little nudge every now and then."

"Deal, sport."

They gave each other a high five. Oh yes, they made such a good team…

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

On Thursday, the chemistry test took place. Joey fitfully stifled a yawn as he waited for the papers to be passed around. Although he had tried hard to avoid it, nervousness had overcome him before he had gone to bed, so of course he hadn't been able to sleep much more than a wink last night.

_'Please, dear God, don't let me fall asleep or anything…!'_ he thought desperately.

The paper landed on his desk, and he looked at the first problem. An equation. What a hell of a start. What he hated most was first in line. It was a miracle that he didn't moan – but a **close** miracle.

(?)Al (?)Cl2 equals (?)AlCl3 (2)

The whole thing looked like a bunch of gibberish to him, and for a moment he just stared blankly at it. (3)

_'Easy there, Joey. Look at the next problem; perhaps you'll be luckier with it than with this one…'_ He moved on, but found that it made no difference.

(?)CuO (?)Na equals (?)Cu (?)Na2O

The term "sweating bullets" fit him perfectly in that moment. Once more, he was facing the main reason why he failed surprisingly many tests – nervousness that kept him awake almost all night long and which later on became quite like a panic attack, and that made him temporarily "forget" most of what he knew. Very carefully, he stole a glance at Seto: the brunet looked completely calm and seemed to be scribbling non-stop. Suddenly, the cerulean eyes met his gaze, and even those mirrored the other's calmness. In one second, his free hand made a curt gesture: 'Take it easy'. Then he looked away again, and Joey took a deep breath.

_'He's right. Take it easy. Just focus…' _

He even closed his eyes for a moment, and to his surprise, he believed that a couple of things were really coming back to him. Hastily, he skimmed over the rest of the problems and put what knowledge he had regained to use. In the end, he was using the strategy of fifty percent "lucky guess" and fifty percent "I'm quite sure about this".

90 minutes later, it felt like a blessing to finally hand the papers in, and Joey swore to rid his mind of all that chemistry stuff as soon as he could.

"Need I ask how it went, pup?" Seto asked in a low voice as they walked out of the room.

"It never fails! It always happens when we have important tests…!" Joey groaned.

Seto wanted to reply, but Ryou spoke before he could: "Kaiba, I just thought I'd warn you: it could be that you'll get run over by a horde of girls – I think they want to ask you out to the dance."

"Great, just great," the CEO snorted, "How fortunate that I have a meeting early this afternoon…"

"Guess I'll see you later, then," Joey remarked with a sigh.

"Cheer up, it probably was quite alright," Seto told him with a very short pat on the shoulder before he made his silent getaway.

Sure enough; a second later, a cluster of girls left the room just when Seto disappeared around a corner. The excitement in their eyes as they searched for the object of their desire was almost creepy, and their giggles were unnerving.

"Perhaps we should get going too," Ryou suggested, "I mean, you don't want them to end up asking you questions about Kaiba, do you?"

"Why would they? D'you think they know that –" Joey began to say.

"Possibly," Bakura's lover interrupted deliberately, "With obsession comes nosiness… But anyway, let's go – we're going out for lunch."

"Now you're talking!" Joey agreed brightly, and the two boys hurried away before Ryou's suspicion came to be.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

"Puppy, perhaps you should go to bed a bit earlier so you'll have enough sleep," Seto said after dinner that evening.

"And what if I can't sleep anyway?"

"And what if you weren't alone?" Seto asked back, not missing a beat.

"…What? You mean…?"

"Exactly. If it helps you calm down, all is well, and if it doesn't… well, I can handle having less sleep than usual."

"I don't want to keep you awake."

"Let's just see how it goes. Don't get all upset from the start."

"But –"

"No. I've made up my mind. We might as well get going now since you're still quite agitated… Mokuba, I hope I can count on you to go to bed at a reasonable time, considering that school starts again next week."

"No problem, Seto! Good luck with the test tomorrow – especially you, Joey!"

"Um… thanks!" the blond called back as he was being maneuvered up the stairs by Seto.

Barely half an hour later, the lights were switched off in the brunet's bedroom, and Joey strongly guessed that he wouldn't find the sleep he needed tonight either. He tried to find out on which side he lay better, but it seemed to make no difference. As he turned around yet again, a calm voice drifted out of the darkness somewhere beside him:

"Calm down, puppy. Don't think about it, or at least try not to unnecessarily enhance the importance this test holds for you." A pause, then: "Think about February. Or New York… or whatever you prefer."

That certainly sounded doable, so Joey closed his eyes and began to imagine what going to New York would be like. The Statue of Liberty… Times Square, maybe… at least, at Seto's side for sure…

"Much better."

Joey felt warm breath on his neck, and an arm wrapped itself around him as Seto turned onto his side as well.

"Goodnight, Joey…"

"'Night, Seto," he mumbled and was glad that he found the sleep he needed after all.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

The economics test went far better than chemistry, and Joey's spirits were as high as ever after they handed in their papers. Tristan's comment to this was:

"Of course it went well – you could study with someone who knows all about it!"

"Hey, he could've said that he didn't want to help…"

"True… So, he's helping you with everything?"

"No, just where I asked for it. Especially math." Joey made a face; even though his preparation would be far better this time, he wasn't looking forward to that test in any way.

"If you're not too busy this weekend, perhaps we could go through physics together," Tristan suggested.

"Sounds like a great idea!" Joey agreed. It had been quite a while since they had last gotten together. "Just come over at any time."

"Don't you need to ask Kaiba first?"

"Look, if he has a problem with that, there are plenty of ways that he can avoid you," Joey assured him, "And besides, perhaps you could try and get along a bit better. You guys won't be fighting for the rest of your lives, will you?"

"Unless he doesn't stop acting like the king of the world, I don't see why not."

Joey sighed and hoped that he and Mokuba would be able to come up with some scheme to at least improve the situation. Friendship probably was too much to ask for, but perhaps they could make sure that they wouldn't be glaring daggers at each other so often.

Outside, they found Seto waiting for Joey. He stood there so motionlessly that he could have been a statue. A girl was talking to him, though her apparent excitement made her stumble over her own words. As the two other boys came closer, she finally got to her point:

"…so anyway, I was wondering if you'd go to the dance with me," she finished breathlessly.

Seto chose that moment to look past her shoulder and saw the two friends. "There you are. Let's get going," he said curtly and brushed past the girl, who gave him what she hoped to be an adorable, heartbroken look. But he didn't see it, and he certainly had no intention whatsoever of answering her question.

"See you on Saturday, then," Tristan said once the CEO was with them.

"Sure thing."

"What's he talking about?" Seto asked when they were alone again and left the school grounds to walk home (this was Joey's idea, of course).

"He's coming over on Saturday so we can study physics together." When that was frowned upon, he defended himself: "Hey, we haven't gotten together in ages!"

"If he wouldn't make such a darn fuss because of us, my reaction would have been different."

"A fuss? What makes you say that?"

Oh yeah, he hadn't told him about the little talk at the New Year's party yet… "I'm not afraid of him or anything, not at all, but it's really getting on my nerves. He'd probably want to kill me if he even catches you looking unhappy for some reason."

"Maybe if you'd try to get along –"

"That's not very likely to happen, if you ask me."

"How do you know that? You haven't given it a try yet!"

"Don't bother," Seto muttered, wishing for the subject to get dropped before they would get too upset.

"Fine…" Joey figured that they would be better off it they let it go, so he made one last request: "Could you at least try not to get into an argument when he'll come over?"

"…All right. If he asks for it, however, I won't keep quiet."

Joey sighed and nodded. For now, that would simply have to do.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

The next day, Tristan arrived at the mansion shortly after noon. When he followed his blond friend to the living room, they passed Seto.

"Kaiba," Tristan said curtly.

"Taylor," the brunet replied in the same fashion and with a completely neutral expression before going to his study, presumably.

"C'mon, why don't you loosen up a bit? Did you get into a fight on New Year's or something?" Joey asked as they got the papers out.

"No, we didn't. We just had a little talk, that's all. And I just… well, I just don't trust him yet."

"Because of what happened after he lost to Yami? Yeah, that must be it," he answered the question himself when he saw the look on Tristan's face, "Look; I don't need a lecture or anything, Serenity already talked to me about it."

"Then I'll put it short and simple: I've seen you suffer long enough – and then someone who **claims** to love you, to not see you get hurt again, does just that…!"

"It was the heat of the moment. If you'd have seen him apologize, you too would believe that he was really sorry. Try not to be so hard to him, okay?"

"I'll try," Tristan said, though not sounding too confident.

_'Phase one, done,'_ Joey thought before suggesting: "Let's get on with this, then we can say that we've really **earned** ourselves a break."

"Agreed. So, how many formulas did you write down for the electromagnetic waves?"

"Oh brother…"

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

A fair while later, Mokuba paid a visit to his brother.

"Seto, Joey's wondering if you could come down a bit."

"Why? Because of the studying?"

"No, no, they're taking a break right now…"

"I see…" Seto was suspicious, but didn't say so as he slowly stood up and followed Mokuba downstairs. What would they ask of him…?

In the living room, Tristan and Joey were playing some Mario game in 2-Player-Mode. They were sitting on the floor in front of the TV, and they looked quite like really overgrown kids.

"What's the matter, Joey?" he asked and watched as Luigi fell into quicksand and drowned in it.

"Oh good, you've come! Look, we can't get past this level, so perhaps you can do it!"

"What? I've never played this game before…"

"Maybe, but you're the one with a flair for games, right? You can take over for me…"

Just then, Mario died as well because of a flower that breathed fire, and _"Continue? – Yes. – No."_ appeared on the screen.

"Wait a minute, I'm supposed to play with **Kaiba**?!" Tristan exclaimed.

"Sure, why not? It's just a game…"

Both brunets looked displeased, but Mokuba said: "Aw, don't be a spoilsport, big brother…!"

"I second that for you," Joey told Tristan.

"Well, if Taylor doesn't get in my way…" Seto started to say.

"If Kaiba stays out of mine…" Tristan contradicted loudly.

"Hey, you might be thankful if you'd help each other out once in a while! Like when you're fighting a boss, for instance!" Mokuba protested.

"Yeah right," Tristan muttered.

"So, what d'you say?" Joey asked both of them.

"I doubt that I'd have peace again if I were to say no, so I agree," Seto said with a sigh and sat down tailor-fashion next to Tristan, who pursed his lips a bit. Joey and Mokuba, both grinning like mad, sat aside a bit so they wouldn't get in the way of any action.

The same level was played again, and just like Joey had guessed, Seto quickly got the hang of the controls, so soon it wasn't a problem anymore to keep up with Tristan. Things seemed to go quite well, but suddenly Luigi got killed, and Seto blinked.

"Did that bloody sun just kill me?!" (4)

Joey and Mokuba sniggered, and Tristan huffed: "Yeah, that thing's a bastard… You should try and stay powered up until you get there."

"Well, you took that… that mushroom-thing right in front of my nose!"

"Hey, I needed it too!"

"Screw that! Next time, it's **mine**!"

Tristan snorted and selected the level again. "Prick…" he muttered under his breath.

Seto narrowed his eyes – a sure sign that he had heard that…

"Guys, work together, or you'll be stuck there forever."

"I'm not the one making a big rhubarb about a mushroom," Tristan protested.

"Just be a bit considerate of each other. You both have the same goal, after all," Mokuba pointed out.

"Right… let's go, Kaiba."

"Remember, **I** get the first power-up."

"Here we go again…" Tristan sighed, but complied. Nevertheless, the evil desert sun rubbed both of them out a few more times (this resulted in angry yelling from Tristan's side and a snarl from Seto), but eventually they completed the level successfully.

"Whew! Hallelujah, I'd say!" Tristan commented.

"Blasted sun… I never want to see it again," Seto said darkly.

"Don't worry; it only appears in that level," Mokuba assured him.

"I bet you're having at least **some** fun, so how about a few more?" Joey asked. Seeing the look Seto gave him, he added: "We'll do more schoolwork afterwards, I promise."

The CEO turned to his gaming partner. "You think we could make a compromise, Taylor?"

"Are you willing, Kaiba?"

"Are **you**?"

There was a moment of silence, then: "I guess…"

Joey and Mokuba exchanged a glance and a wink. _'Phase two, done.' _

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

By the time they stopped, Seto and Tristan were already halfway through the third world. In the beginning, there had been quite a few more arguments that concerned the power-ups, but in the end they could negotiate more easily. For now, Joey and Mokuba noted: _'Mission accomplished.'_

"Wow, you guys made fast progress," Mokuba complimented. The others knew that that really meant something – after all, when the boy had gotten the game, he had completed it within three days.

"I knew that you were quite good at Duel Monsters, but that you're good at a Mario game as well… I gotta hand it to you, I'm impressed," Tristan said with a confirming nod.

"Sure you are…"

"Seriously, I am!"

Seto smirked, then turned to Joey. "I believe you said that you'd continue to study after a while, right?"

"Yeah…" The blond sighed. "I can't wait until the tests are over!"

"You can say that again!" Tristan agreed, "By the way: do you know what you're gonna do in Ski Beech?"

"Probably skiing. You could teach me how…"

"Hey, yeah, good idea! Deal!" the brunet replied brightly.

_'Great…!'_ Seto thought. The way this was going, he would have to choose between a sport he had never done before, sledding with psychos or ice-skating with his greatest rival(s) and the friendship girl.

"Would you teach Seto too if he'd do the same thing?" he heard Joey ask.

"Teach Kaiba?" Tristan looked thoughtful for a moment, then grinned. "That sounds kinda interesting…"

"In other words: you'd make me ski right into a crevasse," Seto remarked sarcastically.

"Me? Wouldn't dream of it." The grin remained, however.

"Liar!" Seto growled.

"Hey, if you don't want to ski anyway, I could really care less," Tristan retorted matter-of-factly, then got up to get his papers. "Hey Joey, let's see if we can get these problems straight, okay?"

"We might as well…" On his way back to the couch, he gave Seto a look that was asking whether he would stay with them a little longer or not. The CEO just shook his head, however, and brushed yet another stray hair strand out of the other's face before leaving the room. He had actually wanted to kiss him – but then again, with Tristan watching them (which certainly was the case; Seto was sure of that)… no, it would have to wait…

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

A few hours later, Tristan left, insisting that he was awaited at home for dinner. And although Seto was rather grateful for that, their exchange of goodbyes wasn't as crude as it had been before. After dinner, departure was impossible as he found Mokuba dragging him to the TV.

"I taped today's race so you could have a look! And try to be a bit open-minded; don't already decide that it's out of the question from the get-go!" the boy reminded him as he browsed the hard drive for said race.

"Why d'you think won?" Joey asked him as he sat down next to the elder Kaiba.

"I really can't say. Miller's usually good in this event, but Svindal is out of this world."

"Where's he from again?"

"Norway."

"Oh yeah…"

Seto took the liberty of blotting out that conversation since neither of the two mentioned names meant anything to him. Instead, he watched the screen as the commentator announced the start of the downhill skiing race in Beaver Creek. They watched the first two or three skiers tackle the slope, then he said:

"I don't see any fun in this."

"Tristan says that doing it is much different than watching it anyway. He says that it's best when you just go downhill in a straight line with the wind whipping against your face –"

"Oh, please!"

"Hey, I trust him!"

"Way to go for you."

"Even if you don't go downhill in a straight line, it's lots of fun!" Mokuba protested, siding with Joey. Because his class had been on a trip to the mountains before, where he had learned how to ski, he knew what he was talking about.

"Little brother, be honest: can you even **imagine** me doing that?" Seto asked exasperatedly.

"Potentially yes. I'd advise you to – that way, if you don't like it, you can at least say that you've tried. Just think about it: a sport that's fun even if you're alone, though company is always better… but at least it's fun! What more could you want?"

Just then, the next contestant fell, and it looked as if he were doing a weird summersault as he slid down the piste (which was icy, according to the commentator) and stopped by crashing into the nets at the side of the slope.

"Oh yes, it looks like **lots** of fun…" Seto's sarcasm was impossible to overhear, and the doubtful look on his face spoke for itself as well. "See, that's exactly why I don't jump for joy at the thought of learning this sport."

Mokuba looked a bit helpless for a moment, but when Joey opened his mouth to attempt protest, he beat him to it: "But the slopes won't be icy where **you'd** ski! And you can take your time on the way down!"

"Wait, I've got it!" Joey chimed in, "What **else** would you do, if not skiing, Seto? I kinda doubt that Mr. Davidson would let you stay indoors all day long for seven days straight…"

The way in which the blue eyes widened was all it took for them to know that they had practically cornered him. The silence in the room was only interrupted by the commentator's excited remarks on how good the next contestant was doing. Finally, though, Seto slowly said:

"You understand that I'm… let's say, **suspicious** of this whole thing… do you?"

Joey laid a hand on his shoulder. "Yeah, I do. Heck, I don't know how to ski either, but I think it's exciting! And Tristan surely won't direct you into a crevasse! C'mon… you might have the time of your life and would miss out on it if you don't give it a try!"

Seto glanced back at the screen, then once again at Mokuba and Joey's hopeful faces. Perhaps he could make a compromise without needing to decide here and now… "I'd like to set a deadline for next weekend. I will have decided by then, but I need some more consideration time."

"I guess that'll do," Joey replied with a shrug.

"Well, he could've said no and made it final," Mokuba reminded him.

"You're right…" When he was about to look back at the TV, he noticed a pointed look on Seto's face. "Um… did I say something wrong?"

"No; but don't say anything more just now, puppy," Seto answered and made sure to capture the blond's lips in a kiss before he would get the idea to answer anyhow. It took a few seconds before he got a reaction, and even then it was a bit chaste. His part, however, remained passionate until he drew back and faced the rather confused look on Joey's face.

"Why…?" he began.

Seto shrugged, amused by the question. "Because I wanted to. And the opportunity was good, too."

The confused look made way for a smile as Joey snuggled up against Seto's side. "That's good enough for me."

The brunet had barely put an arm around the other teen when Mokuba cried: "Oh look, it's Bode Miller's turn!"

"Go, Bode!" both Joey and Mokuba yelled as the American set off.

Seto wondered why they got so excited about it – a bunch of guys skiing down a steep slope, whoopee. He jumped a bit when Miller beat the momentary top time, for Mokuba and Joey both erupted into cheers.

"Yeah, Bode! Way to go!"

"You rock!"

When their tirade of enthusiasm subsided, Seto sighed. "Sometimes you two really worry me."

"We're just supporting the team!" Mokuba argued.

"It really is a shame that they can't hear you."

The boy narrowed his grey eyes for a second, but then declared brightly: "It's the thought that counts."

Joey nodded eagerly. "What he said."

Seto seemed to reason with himself. "Well, if you're happy, I guess I shouldn't consider it a problem."

"Yeah, that's right!"

For the rest of the race, Joey and Mokuba could barely sit still as they watched how the other contestants tried to beat the record – but none of them were successful, and cheers filled the living room as Joey and Mokuba celebrated Miller all over again. Seto contented himself with watching them and thinking about whether he should take Joey's advice and learn how to ski, even if that would mean to be taught by Tristan…

* * *

(1) Random location I picked... _-sigh-_ I wish I could go too...

(2) Um... it might look a bit confusing, but it's impossible to use the format I have in Word... hope it's kinda clear anyway.

(3) Aren't we all familiar with such a moment...? (God knows I used to be when I had Math/Chemistry/Physics!)

(4) That's the hint to which game they're playing... I love it... Super Mario Bros. 3... :)))

Reviews are greatly appreciated... ;)


	21. Chapter 21

Yay, another chapter done (and over 200 pages in Word)! I think I really should stop writing after 1 am, I hear the church bell chime 3 o'clock way too often... _-sigh- _

Well, this first week sure wasn't much different than usual, except that I'm getting into arguments with my family almost every second night _-is thoughtful-_ Oh well, screw that. What's new...? I guess I'm lucky in some way, 'cause I've found the king for the third time in a row on Three Kings Day (I don't wear that silly crown anymore, though). It was right in the first piece of bread, even... O.O

I sincerely hope that you like this chapter... The New York part is roughly based on my own experiences when I went there - minus the part with the Statue of Liberty (we would have had to wait forever for a ferry; still, it's a shame, I would've loved to go out there! I'm just kinda guessing how it would be like, mind you)... And just so nobody gets me wrong: I was only in Manhattan when we were walking around. And in case you're wondering: in my universe, 9/11 didn't happen. It's such a touchy subject, and the only topic I know of that can really make my Dad cry... :(

**dragonlady222**: _-is very happy-_ Thank you! Hmm, I think the site's been down a couple of times during the last few weeks, but it's working fine now :D Hehe, well, let's see... ;)

**bookworm3213**: Thanks! New York rocks, totally... :))) Happy New Year to you too!

**Solo's Orca**: Heh, that's what I thought too - 20 chapters?! I wouldn't have guessed that I'd get this far with this fic, that you all would like it so much... Aah yes, skiing! I remember going to Saas Grund in 2003, and I had to go to ski school for a couple days; however, I soon was going down the hill way faster than the teacher, I didn't want to wait up for the others anymore! _-lol-_ If I don't have school, I can afford to watch the races, they're always on in the early afternoon or evening... they're so fun to watch! Um, yeah, maybe those equations were a bit easy, but God knows that I'd screw it up for sure _-sigh-_ I think I would've liked Chemistry much better if we'd have burned up more stuff and had less Math... _-headshake-_

**petalpixie**: Hope this chapter's worth looking forward to... ;)

**finalfantasys-child**: _-lol-_ I remember that game from the collection of Mario games we had on the SNES. I've been dying to play it again and bought it for the Game Boy Advance just a while ago (got to World 8, but I'm majorly stuck there now). Yeah, that sun gave me a hell of a lot of problems too - once, it killed me right in front of that cube-thing you see at the end of the level (boy, was I ever mad!). Hehe, I'm doing my best ;)

**Arisa Akita**: Many thanks for the compliment :) Those adjectives you guys use for this story are really flattering, I'm glad you like it so much ;) Hehe, if I can manage to write down that stuff the way I dream it, it really should be fun :D

* * *

Sunday was an exceptionally busy day for Seto, Joey and all the others – after all, it was a killer to learn physics, biology **and** history… In the evening, Joey claimed that he was all used up and wouldn't be able to memorize one more formula or one more fact. And although Seto hadn't needed to study as much as him, he remembered how it had been with Gozaburo: the man had pushed him to his limits and beyond, regardless of whether he had a terrible headache or was practically falling asleep over whatever he was supposed to work on, so he knew what "being used up" felt like. To make sure that Joey wouldn't have the same problems as with the chemistry test (or at least, so he hoped), Seto insisted on using the same technique they had applied before the last two tests.

His hopes hadn't been in vain, as it turned out, for once more, Joey looked rather pleased with himself when the test was over by noon on Monday.

"4 down, 5 to go. This week will definitely be the toughest," Tristan said with a headshake while they waited outside the classroom for Ryou, who had been called back by the teacher.

"Did anything of this make any sense to you guys?" Tea asked.

"Sort of, yeah. Why?" Yugi asked.

"Because it sure didn't to me."

"It's just a bunch of facts based on which you should be able to solve the problems, Gardner," Seto drawled.

Tea gave a loud "Hmpf!" before answering sharply: "Well, you're a boy, and everyone knows that boys make more sense of physics than girls!"

"In that case, you must admit that your previous question was rather foolish," Seto smirked. Nobody else dared to say anything, for although most wouldn't guess so, Tea could have quite nasty outbursts.

"One can always hope for exceptions," she snorted.

Fortunately, Ryou returned at that moment to disrupt the bristling atmosphere. "Hey guys, I've got the handouts from Mr. Davidson!"

"Cool! Let's see!" Tristan said excitedly, grabbing his sample.

As they trudged out of the building, they looked over what their teacher had planned for them. He had summed up everything they could do there and had included a list of prices plus a description of the place as well as the date and time of departure. They would get there by bus. Furthermore, he asked of them to decide on their sport by Friday.

"Looks like your consideration time is cut short a bit, huh?" Joey said to Seto.

"So it seems. But it's not a problem."

"Wow, departure time is five in the morning!" Yugi remarked.

"But that's good! That way, we can even make use of the very first day!" Tea said brightly. The others agreed, though nobody was too fond of the idea of getting up so early.

"I'm gonna need two alarm clocks for this," Tristan groaned.

"I probably won't even **need** one," Ryou sighed with a pointed look at Bakura, "Please don't go wake me up with that music of yours…"

"But that's such an effective method!" Bakura protested.

"Bakura, **no**."

"Fine," the tomb robber grumbled, "I'll think of some other way…"

"Just remember that you want to wake **me** up and not the entire neighborhood, or else you'll be accused of disturbance of the peace."

"For everything there's gotta be rules, rules, rules…!" Bakura scoffed before sinking into deep thought about that waking-up ordeal. Marik tried to make him snap out of it by shaking his shoulder, but when that failed, he whispered something into the thief's ear. Whatever he said, it sure caught the other's attention. Ryou and Malik were too engrossed with talking to the others to notice anything. When they finally said goodbye, Yami tapped Ryou on the shoulder.

"I'd keep an eye on him if I were you."

The white-haired boy turned around – and sure enough, Bakura wasn't sulking anymore, but grinning insanely again.

"Dear Lord…" he sighed and decided that he might do well with going to bed a bit earlier, just in case.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

On Tuesday evening, Mokuba said during dinner: "Seto, I'm not so sure about this new history teacher."

"What makes you say that?" the elder asked.

"He's just… weird. He says that his favorite hobby is to build steam engines."

Joey started to laugh and almost choked on the food he was eating at that moment. Seto raised an eyebrow.

"That's all?"

"No. He spent almost all hour talking about himself, his life, his granddaughter and how different it had been when he was at school." (1)

"Hmm…" Seto hummed thoughtfully.

"That guy's gotta be old," Joey commented.

"He sure **looks** old. What's the retirement age, Seto?"

"That depends on when you were born."

Mokuba frowned. "I'd say he's gotta be at **least** sixty…"

"Perhaps you should just be a bit patient, Mokuba. That could simply be his way of introducing himself."

"Doesn't sound like a teacher **I'd** like to have," Joey muttered.

Seto gave a short laugh. "Does such a teacher even exist?"

"Very funny! No, seriously, Mr. Davidson is about as close as it gets."

"I wish **we'd** have that guy," Mokuba sighed.

After dinner, the youngster caught Joey alone before said teen would go upstairs to go through his biology notes one last time before going to bed.

"Joey, I really don't have a good feeling about this teacher…!"

"Hey, I've liked very few teachers I've had so far. And this guy you're talking about… He sounds like some geezer that isn't quite with the time or something."

"That's what worries me."

"They're not allowed to beat kids, and most of them treat you all fair, so perhaps it's just instant dislike you're feeling now. But if anything should ever happen, we're here for you, okay?"

"Yeah… thanks, Joey," Mokuba mumbled, hoping that the blond was right about this dread.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

After the biology test on Wednesday, Seto included math in the subject matter. Joey made it absolutely clear how much he hated that particular subject, yet he had a go at the problems that would help Seto determine where to put the most emphasis on.

"It sucks, I know…" Joey moaned as he watched Seto's eyes dart back and forth, checking his solutions.

"Based on what you've already told me about your bad relationship with this, I had thought it would be worse."

"Seriously?!"

"However, that doesn't mean that there won't be quite a bit we need to go through," Seto admitted.

"I didn't doubt that."

"With a little motivation and effort, you can do this," the brunet assured him.

"Yeah… if only it would be Tuesday already!" Joey sighed.

Seto found himself marveling at the immense distaste the other was showing; after all, to him, most subjects merely ranged from neutral to boring. He looked over the solutions once more before saying:

"Alright, this is how we'll do it: you revise all the theory we've had while I prepare the examples. Tomorrow you can still focus on history, but after that it will be math all the way. And on Saturday, you'll have 90 minutes to solve a certain number of problems."

"What?! On Saturday?!" Joey exclaimed.

"Better than Sunday, wouldn't you agree?" Seeing the distraught look on the blond's face, he explained: "Look, I'm sure that will help you. My stepfather used the same method on me, and it's actually thanks to that that I can fully concentrate on something for 90 minutes straight."

"I bet you can manage for even longer than that," Joey replied and looked at the paper as if it were his death sentence, "But I'll never be able to do that…!"

"You should if you want to reach your goal."

"Wanna know what my best math grade is?"

"Hmm?"

"A C. Don't ask me how I did it…" Joey shook his head. "I just wanna pass."

"You could make that C again if you want – or even better. As I've said before, pup: in the end, it all depends on you."

"Hooray for me," Joey said sarcastically, raising a fist a bit.

Seto motioned to him to stand up and gazed intently at him. "In my opinion, you've been plenty upset for one day. Allow me to distract you a bit now," he purred.

"Go ahead," Joey invited him, grateful for the suggestion.

Seto went ahead and kissed him. Of course, he could do it quick, hard and brimming with desire, but right now he made the kisses long, slow and yet still laced with passion. To enjoy it even more, they soon lay down on the couch; it was there that Mokuba found them when he came home, and he just laughed at their assurances that they **had** worked before.

"Even if that weren't so, don't mind me. Carry right on," he told them with a wink before going to his room.

The older teens hesitated a moment longer, but then continued with what had originally just had been considered an act of distraction.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Despite all the things they had had to study for the history test, none of them thought that it had been a disaster or similarly bad. With that test, the second week of studying was over, and three more exams were all that stood between now and the school treat (and after that, the "winter week").

"Guys, we should go find Mr. Davidson so we can tell him what sport we've chosen," Yugi said when they left the room.

"Oh yeah, I almost forgot –" Ryou began, but then Bakura suddenly stood beside him, his eyes alight with excitement.

"Let's not waste time, Hikari! C'mon!"

Ryou blanched and made it clear that he had forgotten something else – namely, how to explain Bakura to the teacher. Malik looked a bit startled too; only Yugi shrugged and said:

"We could always try explaining it truthfully to him."

"Oh, please!" Seto snorted exasperatedly. It had taken him a while to accept the fact that the Yamis could exist as individuals in the world, but he still vehemently refused to believe in magic and such, and of course he doubted that a rational grown-up would believe in such things.

"Let's do this already!" Bakura interrupted, grabbing Ryou's wrist and pulling the other teen behind him as he walked off. "Where is he, anyway?" the others heard him ask.

"I don't know, maybe if we turn right here… Bakura, stop!"

Ryou's protests were useless as he was yanked around the corner.

"Guys, wait up!" Malik yelled and ran after them.

"Poor Mr. Davidson," Tea sighed, then the gang hurried after them as well.

By the time they had found the right room, Marik had appeared as well. Mr. Davidson was sitting at the desk and stared open-mouthed at two boys who looked like twins, almost clones, of two of his students. When the rest of the gang entered the room, Bakura said eagerly:

"I'll go sledding!" When all he got was a stare, he rolled his eyes and turned to Ryou. "Do something."

"If you hadn't been so hasty…!"

"…Ryou, could you please explain?" Mr. Davidson finally asked.

"Oh, um… he's… well…"

"A close relative or something," Bakura finished in an annoyed tone of voice, "Who cares? Just sign me up already!"

Ryou fidgeted and said in a small voice: "Listen, Mr. Davidson, I'll take full responsibility for him." _'And please, let him come along! If you don't…'_ He didn't dare finish the thought, let alone voice it.

"I see…" the teacher replied slowly, but grabbed a pen. "What's your name?"

"Bakura." The thief was clearly getting impatient, and that was dangerous.

Mr. Davidson raised an eyebrow. "Hmm? But… that's Ryou's surname…"

The spirit's eyes glinted forebodingly, but Ryou saved the situation by urging the man: "It's alright, it's okay, just take that name… I'll go sledding too, by the way."

Once again, a stare was directed at Bakura, but then Mr. Davidson luckily decided to take Ryou's advice and noted down the new information. Then he looked at the two Egyptian boys, one of which looked just as excited as Bakura did.

"Malik…?"

"Um… what they said," he replied, pointing to the other two.

Mr. Davidson decided there and then that he wouldn't ask any further questions about this whole look-alike thing, not under any circumstances. "And what do you want to do?"

"We want to go sledding as well."

The teacher put that down too, then noticed the others – and he was about to breathe a sigh of relief to see a bunch of normal, all-familiar teenagers when he spotted Yami. The look on his face amused Bakura and Marik very much, but their lighter halves elbowed them to keep them from laughing.

"Let me guess… the same thing?"

Yugi realized that it would really be a bad idea to attempt to tell the truth, so he nodded. "Yeah."

"Fine with me, absolutely." A wry smile. "Alright, on to what you want to do…"

A couple of minutes later, they all had named their choices, and Tristan had a rather gleeful look on his face.

"Ooh, so Kaiba **did** go for skiing after all…!"

"Yes, but I'll think twice before deciding whether I will entrust myself to your tutoring, mark my words," Seto said with a meaningful glance.

Joey's friend just snickered before Mr. Davidson caught their attention again: "About the rooms: I've been told that it's five people per room. Perhaps you want to decide on that in advance so that we can avoid big arguments once we're there."

"**I'd** fancy the idea of being in the same room like you guys!" Bakura spoke, placing one hand each on Joey and Seto's shoulders.

"Don't worry, Kaiba, I'll see to it that you get your sleep," Ryou told the brunet, knowing exactly what that suspicious look meant.

"You had better," Seto replied with his eyes narrowed.

"I'll join you too, if you don't mind," Tristan chimed in.

"Marvelous," the CEO remarked with maximum sarcasm.

Tristan shrugged. "If you'd rather have some random guy or Tea in your party, you might as well say so."

This time, no reply came from Seto.

"I guess it's settled, then," Joey commented.

The others were crowded around Mr. Davidson, and there was no doubt that the main matter they were discussing was Tea. Finally everything was agreed on, and the weekend could begin.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

On Saturday, Joey had just finished brushing his teeth when a maid came and led him to a room he hadn't been in before. It was quite different from most rooms of the mansion, for it only contained two desks with a chair each. Seto was sitting in one of them.

"Good morning, puppy. Sit down; everything's ready for you," he said, gesturing to the other chair.

"Oh man…" Joey groaned when he found four sheets of paper full of mathematical problems. Algebra, trigonometry, fractions… it looked as if his worst nightmares had come together. Everything he needed in order to deal with those problems was there as well – a ruler, a pencil, a pen, blank sheets of paper and a calculator. The material stuff, however, was only half the deal…

"Imagine that you're really at school. 90 minutes, and not one second more," Seto instructed him, "Now then, good luck." A faint beep from his watch signaled that he was taking the time. Then he sat back and got a rigid look on his face. Joey looked at him a second longer, then averted his gaze and stared at the first problem.

When a bit more than half the time was gone, he looked up after double-underlining another solution. Seto was looking intently at a sheet of paper in front of him, tracing the lines with a pen in search of any eventual mistakes. Rules were rules…

"Seto?"

Wordlessly, the brunet looked up.

"Can I go to the bathroom?"

"If you can afford the time."

Joey nodded and made a run for it. He wished it wouldn't be necessary, but he knew that his chances were best when he made the most of the time he was given. By the time he headed back, he felt quite as if it were the real thing. It seemed as if he had just sat down again when Seto said:

"15 more minutes."

"Crap! Must hurry…!" Joey muttered to himself, and Seto could practically watch how the other's handwriting quickly became messy; yet he said nothing for the sake of keeping the situation realistic.

"Time's up, pup," he told him after the last while and stood up. Joey managed to double-underline the last solution he had come up with before Seto confiscated the papers.

"God, please spare me of any more math for a couple of hours!" Joey moaned, putting a hand to his forehead.

"Don't worry, you're free now. But I'd like to discuss this with you in the evening, okay?"

"Deal," Joey agreed instantly and was looking forward a lot to doing completely non-mathematical activities until then.

"Oh yes, speaking of discussing… We should plan where you want to go in New York."

"Yeah!" Joey's eyes lit up considerably upon hearing that name.

"Go enjoy yourself for a while; I've got a few things to do."

"Sure thing! Later, then!" Joey complied happily and hugged Seto tightly before dashing out of the room, presumably planning to go downstairs.

Seto, on the other hand, went to his study to do a couple of things for work and start correcting the test. He was looking very much forward to that daytrip, considering that his puppy's happiness was already so great…

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

When Seto went back downstairs in the afternoon, he found Joey and Mokuba in the living room looking through a pamphlet – God knew where they had gotten it from.

"…that's a must-see!"

"Yeah, you're right…" Whatever they had just discussed received a "X" next to its name.

"So, you've already decided on something, haven't you?" Seto asked as he joined them on the couch.

"A couple of things, actually."

"Big brother, will you take me there someday too?" Mokuba asked excitedly.

The elder smiled. "Of course, Mokuba."

Joey held the pamphlet's map of New York City under his nose. "Alright, I'd like to go see the Empire State Building… Times Square would be cool too… Central Park, if there's enough time…"

As he listened to the other's plans, Seto observed the map and found that fortunately, the locations were quite close together – that was convenient, for they'd have to subtract quite a few hours of driving time to get there and back home again in the evening (and that would have to be at a reasonable time since they both had a test the next day).

"Wouldn't you want to go see the Statue of Liberty as well?" he asked.

"Oh, I hadn't gotten to the attractions outside of the city yet, but yeah, that'd be great! And if we still have time, we can improvise along the way!" He grinned. "And we'll be **walking** – it'd be a shame to be in a car all the time." (2)

Seto sighed. That called for some at least minor disguise, probably some sunglasses or something… "Fine. There's something I'd like to add too: brace yourself for an early get-up, New York's not just around the corner."

"I was afraid of that. But I bet it'll be worth it."

"You can have my camera, if you want," Mokuba offered.

"Gee, thanks, kiddo."

"I'll go make a call to reserve tickets – and then I'll be back with your test," Seto excused himself as he got up.

"You made Joey do a test?!" Mokuba looked a bit appalled.

"It's a useful way to test one's knowledge."

"Provided that you have that knowledge in the first place," Joey threw in.

"So far, it's looking quite good."

"What do you mean?" Mokuba and Joey asked in unison.

"You'll see," was all Seto said before leaving to finish the task.

As it turned out later that evening, a "C" had been scored on that test, much to Joey's delight and surprise. Seto and Mokuba congratulated him.

"You'll pass that test for sure!" Mokuba declared.

"Yeah… it could happen…" Joey muttered, looking at the red "C" Seto had made. It had been a little while since he had last seen such a grade in math – and the way things looked, he really could repeat that this time. Determined to do that, he paid extra attention when Seto explained his mistakes later on…

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Finally, it was Monday. Within a few hours, they would have written all the "hard" tests and would only need to bother with subjects like physical education, art etc.

Seto found that he would be very glad when that was the case, for then Joey wouldn't be so stressed anymore. Especially last evening, the blond had been unusually silent as he had gone over numerous aspects of the theory in his mind, motivated by the result of the practice test. This time, nothing had been able to keep him from being so restless that he found sleep later than he had wanted to, but hopefully that wouldn't turn out to be a problem.

The teenage CEO rolled over and nudged the boy sleeping beside him. All that happened was that Joey turned onto his back, mumbling something that nobody could understand.

"Wake up, Joey," Seto called softly and gently shook his shoulder.

The other's eyes barely opened. "Five more minutes…" he pleaded sleepily.

"It'd be better if you get up now," Seto replied as he sat up.

Joey looked confused for a moment, but then he groaned and covered his eyes. "Oh no… math…"

"It will be over soon, don't forget that. By the way: happy birthday, puppy," the brunet added in a whisper before kissing Joey.

"Mmh… thanks," Joey murmured and started to rub the sleep out of his eyes as he fitfully got out of bed. He had the slight impression that he was being even slower than he usually was in the morning (at least, until the moment when he'd realize that he was late). A bunch of stretching and yawning later, he had put on his school uniform. He was in the middle of fiddling with his hair when Seto came back from the bathroom.

"How can you wake up so quickly?" Joey wondered, giving up on his hair and just shaking his head a bit.

"Out of habit. Come on, I'll make you a coffee and then you'll be awake plenty long before school," Seto answered and led him downstairs by the hand.

"Maybe I should knock myself out next time so I'll have enough sleep…"

"I'd go for sleeping pills, but that's another way," was the sarcastic response.

"…Oh yeah…"

In the kitchen, Seto gently forced Joey to sit down before making coffee for both of them, though taking care to make the one for Joey a bit stronger than it usually was so he'd wake up faster.

About half an hour later, they were at school, wide awake and ready for the test (at least, Joey **claimed** that he was). Before any of those dreaded last-minute questions could come up, the rest of the gang arrived.

"Hi Joey, happy birthday!" Tea chirped.

"Yeah man, congratulations!" Tristan said and gave him a clap on the shoulder.

"You're quite a jinx – I mean, to have a test on the very same day…!" Bakura remarked.

"Rub it in…"

"Real nice, Bakura!" Yami huffed.

"Geez, isn't a guy allowed to make a comment around here?!"

"C'mon, guys, stop…" Joey began, but then the bell rang.

"Let's discuss this later!" Ryou urged them. Nobody said anything against that, or certainly not out loud, so they proceeded to hurry to the classroom – just on time.

Their maths teacher sported the usual look on his face, a look that said 'Great, now I'll be spending loads of time correcting a bunch of mistakes you make just because you don't get it'. Undoubtedly, that was the reason why he was the exact opposite of Mr. Davidson – nearly everyone hated him. The fact that their class wasn't very good at math didn't improve the student-teacher relationship. (3)

"Let's get on with it, then," he drawled when the last student had sat down.

"Let's not, and say we did," someone retorted smartly, and a few people laughed, one of them being Joey. He stopped short, however, when the teacher slammed his hand on his desk in an unceremonious way of handing out the tests. In a dangerous voice, the man said:

"The next one who gives me that kind of wise-guy-talk will fail this test, without exceptions." He glared at Joey, practically challenging him to be the one. The whole class knew of the clash between those two particular people, therefore they waited with apprehension for the blond's reaction.

Joey didn't say a word and looked the teacher straight in the eye until the man moved on to hand out the other tests. "Bastard…" he mouthed to himself as he gave the paper a hateful glare. _'I'll show him! I'm gonna pass this thing, no matter what!'_

Seto was positively surprised when he saw how his boyfriend didn't waste a single second when the teacher told them to begin. _'Looks like he really wants to prove himself.'_ As he started to solve the problems as well, he hoped that the other's determination would pay off; perhaps the teacher wouldn't pick on him so much anymore.

One and a half hours later, it all was over, and relieved sighs filled the room as the students gladly handed in their papers. Most of them cheered loudly within earshot (much to the teacher's displeasure). Normally, Joey would have been one of them, but to make sure that he wouldn't mess up anything about this, he didn't say a word until he had left the classroom, smirking because the teacher had been surprised that he hadn't tried to get just a few seconds more in a desperate attempt to try and solve one more problem.

"This feels even better than I thought it would!" Tristan said happily as they left.

"It's definitely time to relax a bit… how about if we all go out for lunch?" Yugi suggested.

"Hey, good idea! I'm starving; I only had coffee this morning!" Joey exclaimed as if in sudden realization.

"Perhaps you'd join us, Kaiba?" Ryou offered politely.

Seto gave him the 'you're-not-being-serious-are-you' look, but Joey elbowed him and said: "Sure he's coming… **right**?" he asked pointedly.

"Better decide fast, Kaiba, I think your fan club is approaching," Yugi interjected.

Raising an eyebrow, Seto stole a glance to the school's front doors, and sure enough, a bunch of girls had appeared there. There really was no time to lose. Barely moving his lips, he muttered to the blond next to him: "Pretend that you're dragging me. Let's get the hell out of here."

"You said it! We're outta here!" Tristan agreed hastily, and the gang made their getaway with him in the lead. Like he had been advised to do, Joey grabbed Seto's arm and pretended to be making a great effort to drag the brunet along. And although they hadn't been asked to be a part of this, Tea and Ryou added to the effect as they lightly pushed Seto, doing a good job of faking their strain.

"Kaiba, wait!" one of the girls called, but of course he didn't wait.

"Why the heck is he hanging out with those losers?" another wondered.

"Yeah, the 'geek patrol', as he calls them…"

"Or the 'nerd herd'."

They got into a huge debate over which expression he used most frequently, making a bunch of other students that passed them sigh in exasperation. One girl said to her boyfriend as they passed them:

"Honestly, don't they have any other problems?"

"Eh, they're nutcases. Just let them be," he told her.

"You're right. As if he'd ever go out with one of them anyway…"

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Because they had agreed to be in New York by 10 am, Seto set the alarm clock for four-thirty in the morning. And for a change, he himself had to admit that he still was rather tired when the shrill beeping awoke them. While he groped for the device that so many people hated, Joey moaned and uttered an "It can't be…" before covering his ears with the pillow to blot out the noise.

Seto yawned and made a half-hearted attempt to remove the pillow. "It is, puppy. We can sleep in the car a bit longer, but we've got to get up now."

"…Fine… it's for New York," Joey sighed as he struggled to get up. Now he was really glad that Seto had reminded him to get the clothes he would want to wear ready before going to bed. While he got dressed as quickly as he could in his drowsy state, Seto went to check on Mokuba and got some coffee. Joey had a cup as well, though he almost put salt instead of sugar in it (Seto snatched the cup away one second before the disaster would have come to be). Finally, at five o'clock sharp, they got into the car that would take them to New York – it didn't look too fancy or flashy, yet Seto had made sure that it would be one with tinted windows. No sooner had they sat down when Joey leaned against him, eyes closed and almost asleep again.

"See ya there, Seto," he mumbled faintly.

"Will do…" A few moments later, the brunet was asleep as well.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

He was awoken because a certain someone who was filled with excitement was shaking his shoulder.

"Seto, wake up! We're almost there!"

He yawned and looked around in time to see Joey lean over to a window, his nose practically pressed against it. Just then, however, the car entered a tunnel, and he sat back disappointedly.

"Aw… I wanted to know if I could already see Liberty Island…"

"We'll be there soon enough. I hope you don't mind that I arranged for that to be our first destination since all the other places are further north…"

"Hell, I don't mind!" Joey beamed. When they left the tunnel, he went right back to the window. "Wow…" he marveled as he tried to look at everything at once. Suddenly, he remembered something. "Oh… shit! I forgot the camera!"

Seto smirked and gestured to his winter coat. "I half-suspected that that might happen, so I put it in my jacket yesterday evening and checked twice that I really have it before we left."

"Thank heavens!" Joey sighed, relieved.

Shortly thereafter, they arrived at Battery Park.

"Mr. Kaiba, Mr. Wheeler, we're here," the driver announced and stopped the car.

"Thank you. I'll call you later in the afternoon."

"We'll probably be at Times Square or Central Park," Joey added as he got out as well.

"Very well, sirs. Have a nice day."

"You too, man," Joey replied before the man left. When he turned around, he whistled. "Wow, you look spiffy in those – kinda like a Blues Brother!"

"Oh, please!" Seto remarked, rolling his eyes behind his dark sunglasses.

Joey laughed. "How many fingers do you see?" he asked teasingly, holding up two.

"Two. I'm not blind, you know." The small smile showed that he was taking it easy, though. "Let's go get the tickets."

"Okay." As they went to the ticket booth, Joey kept turning around to look back at the city, walking backwards every now and then. Seto kept an eye on him in case he would stumble. Of course, on the ferry, the blond was so enthralled with the sight of the city that he almost didn't want to turn away from it when they reached Liberty Island. But when they got off the ferry and looked upwards, his attention shifted immediately.

"Man… it's so tall…!"

"Very impressive indeed," Seto agreed.

"D'you think we could get all the way up to the crown?"

The CEO shrugged and walked towards the entrance to the statue. "Let's give it a shot."

They were in luck, and soon they were ascending the circular stairs inside. Many steps later, they had finally reached the crown, where a few people already were. The two teens sauntered over to a window where nobody was standing yet and looked outside.

"Wait a moment; where's the city?" Joey wondered.

Seto thought for a second, then answered: "The statue's facing the ocean. The city would be somewhere over there." He pointed. "Besides, you saw the skyline on the way out here."

"Still…" A pause. "Ah, what the heck! This is so awesome…"

"I'm glad that you like your present, puppy," Seto murmured as he wrapped his arms around the other's waist from behind.

"Are you kidding? That has got to be the greatest understatement of the century!"

"If you say so…"

They stayed there a little longer, admiring the view. Seto was glad that the sunglasses and his other coat were doing the trick; it looked as if he would be able to get around without anyone recognizing him. Good; how else was he supposed to enjoy this day as well…?

It was nearly 11 am when they left the statue again. When they were almost back to the mainland, Seto asked where they would go to next.

"Actually, I'm kinda hungry," Joey admitted sheepishly, "You know, no breakfast and all…"

After thinking about where his boyfriend had wanted to go, Seto had an idea. "In that case, Rockefeller Center would be a good guess. I've heard that there are lots of places to eat there, and a bunch of shops et cetera. However, we should call a taxi, or it'll take us far too long to walk all the way up there."

"Well, that shouldn't be too hard," Joey said with a shrug as he remembered how many pictures in the pamphlet had had taxis in them.

In the end, it took longer than they had expected, for many of the yellow taxis were already occupied. Normally, Joey would have been practically begging to just drop by the next place they'd see, but once more he was so occupied with looking out the window that he actually managed to forget his appetite.

"This your first time in New York?" the taxi driver asked, noticing the teen's excitement.

"Yeah. This place is awesome!"

"Oh yes, it is," the man replied rather thoughtfully before adding: "Just remember to keep a bit of an eye out while you're on the streets, okay?"

"Sure thing…"

The driver chuckled – it had been a while he had last had such an excited passenger – then he looked at the other boy. Although he was wearing sunglasses, he was most surely watching the blond. As they waited for quite a while at a busy crossing, he couldn't help but think that something about him was familiar, particularly that haircut – not a single hair out of place…

The brunet didn't fail to notice how often he was being looked at in the rear-view mirror and scowled. "What?" he asked irritably.

"Nothing," the driver hurried to say and was glad that the traffic light changed from red to green at that moment. "You look kinda familiar, though," he remarked.

"You must be mistaken," Seto replied firmly. _'If it weren't for the sunglasses, he'd probably recognize me…' _He remained silent for the rest of the ride until they got out at Rockefeller Center. Joey cheerfully said goodbye as he handed over the money Seto gave to him, and when the car left and he turned back again, his face fell a bit.

"What's wrong?" he asked, noticing traces of the scowl from before.

"I want to stay incognito for today, and he almost recognized me…"

"You don't need to scowl, you know; just ask them not to look anymore."

"Be honest: would **you** stop looking, even if you would get asked to?"

Joey looked away and answered meekly: "…No, probably not…"

Seto put an arm around his shoulders and began marching him off towards an entrance to the Underground Concourse. "Forget about that, puppy. This is your special day, and I want to see you being nothing less than happy all the time."

"I think that '**our** special day' sounds better," Joey grinned.

"Our day, then," Seto repeated and fleetingly kissed his cheek.

In the Concourse, Joey didn't waste much time finding a place where they could eat and went straight to what looked suspiciously like a fast food place and was yet again left to wonder why Seto strictly refused to eat anything else besides a salad. After lunch, they wandered around the long corridors with all sorts of shops and restaurants to their left and right. (4)

"You know, that reminds me of something: we could go get snowsuits."

"But –"

"Otherwise we'll be soaked when we fall down, which we surely will!" Joey didn't look unhappy at all about that; this made Seto shoot him an unbelieving look. "Let's see what they've got!" He grabbed the taller teen by the arm and dragged him along into a nearby clothes shop. Seto noticed that the blond still went for low-priced stuff, and when he tried to remind him that he wouldn't need to do that, he merely got the answer:

"Hey, you have your habits, and I have mine."

"And the quality?"

"I know what kind of stuff this store sells, and I've never been disappointed."

Fortunately enough, they even found a suit in Seto's size. The CEO didn't hide his surprise, for he had always believed that if the clothes for people his height and taller weren't custom-tailored, they could only be bought in special stores. Joey just laughed – oh yes, they could definitely learn from each other. About two corridors later, it was Seto's turn to remember something.

"By the way: what will you wear on Friday, pup? I daresay that you won't show up there in your school uniform…"

"Why, is there a dress code?"

"No, but I doubt that people will come in a school uniform."

"Oh… well…"

"That's all I need to know. Come on, I'll get you something nice," Seto said decidedly.

Several different tries later, Joey emerged from the changing room, wearing a pair of jeans he had picked and a rather fancy blue shirt with buttons. Seto looked at him thoughtfully for a moment, then smiled and walked up to him.

"I know that **you** have to decide whether you like it or not, but **I** think you look fabulous," he spoke.

"Really? Well, I like it too," Joey replied and looked at himself again.

"Joey?"

"What?"

"Will you be my… my date on Friday?"

Joey looked stunned for a moment, then laughed. "No, I'll go with a monkey," he answered sarcastically before smiling happily at the other teen, "Of **course** I'll be your date on Friday. Why do you ask?"

"So we can say that someone asked in the first place," Seto told him softly and made him retreat a few steps until he was in the changing room again, "I love you very much, my puppy…"

"I love you too. Now kiss me, I can tell that you want to," Joey said with a wink.

"You're absolutely right," the brunet confirmed and kissed him passionately. Quite soon, his hands started to fumble with the buttons of the blue shirt, and he was pleased to discover that they could be undone very easily. Perfect. It was almost a shame to end the highly delightful moment, but as Seto pointed out, there still were some more things they wanted to go see. Joey changed back into his normal clothes, and a payment later, they went back to where they had come from on their way to the Empire State Building.

Now that they were walking and could more or less take their time, Joey got a real chance to look around in peace. It was clear that he was very impressed to see so many high buildings at once.

"I feel like I'm in a canyon," he remarked as the buildings towered above them. (5)

Seto couldn't agree with him more; occasionally, he also could only marvel at how those constructions dwarfed them, yet it was the "little" people who had built them in the first place… As they picked their way through the dense crowds on the sidewalk, he held Joey's hand tightly to make absolutely sure that they wouldn't be separated – that was definitely one of the last things that should happen; in a big, busy city more so than most other places.

When they were almost there, they passed an old man sitting at a fence. A piece of cardboard was in his lap, and slightly messy writing stated: "The end is near."

"D'you think he really believes that?" Joey asked after they had passed, glancing back at the man.

"No idea. Maybe that's part of his religion or something, or he's just a nutcase…" Seto shook his head. "Actually, I don't really care. I for my part doubt that any end is near."

"Yeah… agreed."

When they reached the Empire State Building, Joey was slightly dismayed to see a long line of visitors that reached a long ways down the sidewalk.

"See? That's why I reserved tickets beforehand," Seto said matter-of-factly as he got them at the entrance, "What's more, now we can simply walk around most of this godforsaken line."

"Sweet!" Joey cheered as they really could pass most of the line. They joined the crowd at the elevator. The people piled in until they were literally like sardines in a can. Luckily, the ride up to the 86th story lasted barely half a minute, and sighs of relief were breathed as they all piled off again.

"I'm glad that I don't have to do this often," Seto remarked as they headed for the observatory deck.

"So am I; I mean, I don't mind elevators so much, but moments like those really make you wish that you wouldn't need to get in there."

"We could've walked," Seto joked.

"Ugh, no! It'd take us forever…"

Laughing a little, they both stepped out onto the deck. The sight they laid eyes upon was literally breathtaking. For a moment, they were absolutely silent as they admired the view. (6)

"…Now **this** is a sight worth seeing." Seto made the first remark for a change.

"Definitely," Joey agreed, not taking his eyes off the city, "This is so awesome… It's as if you're the king of the world, kinda…" Looking truly thrilled, he turned to the brunet. "You know, this is the perfect opportunity for some pictures!"

Seto smiled and handed him the camera. "You can go take them."

"Yay!" the blond cried, took the device and proceeded to take a bunch of pictures from all four sides of the deck. Seto stayed where he was and watched him amusedly when he was in sight. Even just watching his puppy's delight made this trip worthwhile… When Joey had completed the round, he seized the opportunity and took a picture of Seto. "Now you've got proof that you've really been up here!" he said triumphantly.

"I see. And what about you, puppy? Let's make it fair, and I get to take a picture of you."

"Sure!" he said and gave the camera back.

Seto was silent as he looked at the little screen on the back of the camera, but then he frowned a bit and looked up. "Joey, don't give me that goofy smile. A **real** smile, if you please."

"What?! I **am** smiling!" the other boy protested.

"Goofily, that is. Think of something that **really** makes you smile."

"Like **you**?" A grin.

"If you want." The CEO shrugged, but was satisfied with what he was now seeing. When the picture was taken, Joey addressed a random person nearby:

"Hey, could you take a picture of us?"

"Sure," the guy said and took the camera that Seto handed him.

"How about taking off your sunglasses for this one?" Joey suggested as they stood close together.

"You think so?" The look he got was all the answer he needed. "Oh, alright…" He took off the sunglasses, and while Joey hugged him, he gave their voluntary photographer a pointed look: 'Make it fast, and don't ask any questions.' He could tell by the way that the man's eyes widened that he had been recognized – _'It never fails.'_ – but luckily his unspoken advice was taken, and a second later, it was all over. "Let's go," he muttered to Joey as he took back the camera.

"Sir… aren't you…?" the man began, but Seto said firmly:

"Good day to you." Then he quickly left, holding Joey's hand once again and leaving the man to stare incredulously after them and to wonder whether his eyes had been deceived.

On the way down, Seto checked his watch. "Three pm. Are two hours enough time to go where we haven't been yet?" he asked the blond.

"I guess so – as far as I'm concerned, we've only got Times Square and Central Park left."

"We might have to cut that one short, depending on our time management."

His boyfriend shrugged. "Maybe, but we'll come back someday with Mokuba, and then we can take our time."

Seto nodded, then they headed north again. The crowd of pedestrians seemed to be even denser than before, and the streets were as busy as they always were. At one crossing, they seemed to be in luck as the light for the road traffic turned red while the flashing green man signaled that it was safe to go.

"All right, now **that's** lucky!" Joey said brightly and began to cross. (7)

Just then, it all happened very quickly: the sound of squealing wheels came from round one corner, and that startled Seto and made him react instinctively:

"Joey, wait!" He grabbed the other's arm and yanked him backwards. They collided and almost stumbled, but Seto didn't regret his actions for one single moment – a split second later, a car came round the corner at a breakneck speed. The situation was crystal clear: if it hadn't been for Seto…

"Damn… I could have been roadkill…" Joey stammered with his eyes as wide as could be. A few people yelled angrily after the disappearing car, and he started to shake. "I… I could've died…"

"It's alright, Joey," a comforting whisper sounded out right next to his ear as he was tightly embraced.

"Se-Seto…" He barely heard himself talk.

"Kid, are you alright?"

"Good heavens, that was a close call…!"

The people who were the closest started talking insistently to them, inquiring whether they were okay, if they needed help and so on… Seto gently helped Joey to stand up again and waved the questions aside. "It's okay… please, just leave him alone!" He guided the shaken teen to the nearest wall, where he hugged him again. Joey started to cry on his shoulder.

"Oh God… thank you so much, Seto… I-I can't thank you enough… e-ever…!"

"Ssh, puppy… you don't need to thank me…"

"Yes, I do! You saved my life, for crying out loud!"

Seto kissed the top of his head, not giving a damn about the stares some passer-bys were giving them. "I know. I love you, and I'd do it again in a heartbeat, I swear."

"Th-Thank you…" Joey whispered hoarsely.

They stood there for a few more moments before Seto hesitantly asked: "Are you still willing to go to Times Square or do you want to go home?"

Joey wiped at his eyes with the back of his hand. "Well… since I'm not dead, we might as well go there."

Seto put an arm around him as they approached the cross-walk again. "Don't joke about that, you hear?"

"Sorry."

"Forget it."

Their light soon turned green again, and this time they waited for a second before finally crossing the road, surrounded by the crowd. It was hard to tell whether Joey deliberately didn't leave Seto's side in the slightest or if the brunet wasn't letting him do so. Some people raised their eyebrows at Joey's tear-stained face, but he did his very best to flash reassuring smiles at them. Two cross-walks later, a very kind woman even offered him a tissue, which he gladly accepted. To Seto's relief, he brightened quite a bit when they arrived at Times Square.

"Whoa… look at that big screen!" he said in awe, pointing.

"Admittedly, that's the biggest screen I've ever seen so far. Listen, we should sit down for a moment and maybe have a coffee or something. It's your choice."

"Oh… in that case, let's go to the Hard Rock Café."

"You have strange ways of calming down," Seto remarked as they headed over to the place.

"I've been wondering for ages what it's like in there, so I'm not missing this chance."

"I'm not protesting."

"I know you aren't."

Inside, they chose to just sit in a corner at the bar.

"What'll it be?" a lady asked them, and she – like plenty others so far – noticed that Joey was still rather pale, and she could tell that he had been crying. "Is everything alright?"

"Yes…" Joey answered elusively.

"I'll have a coffee," Seto interrupted.

"Just ice tea," Joey sighed. The lady shot him a compassionate look, then went to get their drinks.

"Joey, I've got a favor to ask of you: don't tell Mokuba about what happened back there tonight, okay?"

"I wouldn't have done that anyway."

"Thank you," Seto said, knowing fully well that his little brother would be dreadfully upset to hear about that shocking event.

Meanwhile, their drinks were brought to them, and Joey drained half his glass right away. Then he took a deep breath. "What a day…"

"Definitely worth remembering," Seto commented, sipping his coffee.

"In more ways than one."

The CEO nodded gravely. After finishing their drinks, they spent a little while sauntering around, and Joey in particular took fairly large interest in examining the guitars and other things on display. When they left, he vowed to himself to pay the place another visit sometime. There wasn't too much more time left for Central Park, but it was enough to let them get a bit of an idea of the park's beauty. It surely would require close to half a day to fully be able to enjoy it and see everything. When it was almost five pm, Seto called their driver, and they headed over to the Trump International Hotel, where they would be picked up.

While they waited, Seto nudged Joey. "So, pup, did you like it?"

"I swear that this was one of the coolest days ever! Thanks a lot, Seto!"

"Don't mention it."

Luckily, the car came just then, so they didn't have to wait much longer to just let themselves go, as Joey did when he insisted on expressing his gratitude anyway – but this time without words. Seto returned each and every kiss with even more passion than usual, for although he tried not to, he kept thinking about how he had almost lost his boyfriend a few hours ago. Things could happen so quickly…

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Shortly after ten, they were home again and found Mokuba waiting for them.

"Hi guys! How was it?" he asked, eager to hear about it all.

"Great," Joey answered tiredly.

"I agree, but we'll tell you about it tomorrow, okay, little brother?" Seto asked.

"Oh… sure, that's okay," the youngster replied, seeing that both of them were quite tired.

"I gotta get some sleep," Joey yawned and stretched a bit.

"Goodnight, then," Mokuba told him cheerfully.

"See ya tomorrow," the blond muttered and hugged him. Mokuba looked a bit confused when he felt that something about this hug was different from other times, but he didn't say anything until Joey was up the stairs and out of sight, having headed for his own room.

"Are you **sure** that everything's okay?" he asked his elder brother suspiciously.

Seto sighed. "Yes. It's been a long day, and he's very tired."

"He hasn't hugged me like that before," the boy pointed out.

"He's fine, don't worry. I'll go check my emails, and then I'll go to bed too – as you should as well."

"I know. I just wanted to see you guys before doing just that." Some doubt still lingered within him, but he knew that he shouldn't push it. "Goodnight, Seto."

"Sleep well, Mokuba…"

The raven-haired boy went straight to bed after that but stayed awake a little longer, wondering whether his doubts were justified. '_**Something** happened, I'm quite sure about it… if only I knew what…'_ By the time his brother checked on him, though, he was asleep after accepting the fact that he would get answers tomorrow.

* * *

(1) Imagine that such a guy really exists... hmpf...

(2) True... although it's very tiring after a while, I'd recommend walking (though we took a sight-seeing bus in-between).

(3) You can say what you want, teachers rarely understand when you try to reason with them in such a case... at least, that's how it always seems to be. They all seem to be thinking: '**My** subject is the most important one of all...' (feel free to disagree if you want...)

(4) I'm guessing a bit on that part as well - we only went to see the NBC studios...

(5) Anyone else got that impression? I think I had it double because I'm mostly just used to villages or small towns without a bunch of high buildings.

(6) That was one of the best things... so awesome... :)))

(7) What comes now truly comes from sudden inspiration (it was about 1.30 am)...

As usual, please notify me if something's totally screwed up... and otherwise, I'm looking forward to your feedback! ;)


	22. Chapter 22

I'm back! And quite soon too, now that I think about it... but I just couldn't let this be, I wanted to update so badly before the tests next week! It's a big treat for all you wonderful readers :))))))

I'd like to thank all of you guys - more than 100 reviews, more than I ever dreamed I'd get! I love every single one of 'em! They make me feel soooo good :D Another little fact: now this story officially has more than 100'000 words o.O Definitely a first for me, in all my history of writing...!

Right... that's all from me for the moment! Hope you all have a wonderful weekend - see ya with the next update! (now I must go get some sleep before watching the downhill skiing race in Wengen - with my parents, good heavens...)

**SapphyTheElf**: Well, that's just the way it came to me..._ -sweatdrop-_ I really recommend visiting that city, it's the bomb! Sometimes I wish I'd still be living in America, then it wouldn't be as big of a deal to go there as it is now; there are so many things I still wanna see...!

**Solo's Orca**: Actually, I should be revising too, but somehow I just can't let it be XD I hope that your exams will go well/have gone well :)

**finalfantasys-child**: I tell you, although it's a horrible thing to happen, I couldn't help but feel veeeeeeeeeery happy when I wrote that! Guess I was on a short drama trip or something (or maybe it was because I was listening to the same 14 songs for hours - and still am, BTW)... Yep, that's definitely one resolution I've made: to keep it up! _-fist in the air-_

**dragonlady222**: _Merci beaucoup!_ :))) Yeah, he'd really deserve it with that one, wouldn't he? _-wink-_

**Arisa Akita**: I totally agree with that! As soon as I saw the one at Times Square I bugged my family to go there for dinner :D And when we went to London, I said that I absolutely must go back to the HRC - with or without the others! The good thing is that my Dad always gets me a shirt and maybe a little accessory or something... :)

**bookworm3213**: Oh yeah - like it is with London, I'm definitely going back to that place someday (preferably sooner than later, and hopefully see a bit more than just Manhattan, but there simply wasn't enough time to do more)...! Heh, yeah, it probably is, but I couldn't let that sudden inspiration slip away (as usual)... Gosh, I kinda envy you 'cause you can call it "my city"... and all I've got is this lousy village full of weirdos -.-;;

**RomanGoddess4eva**: Really, you think so?! Wow... I mean, this has been going on for a long time (by my standards), and I'm sorry that I can't write about what most people would probably expect up till now - and yet I get so much positive feedback! Thank you, thank you so much! And BTW, they're definitely my favorite couple too!! _-dreamy sigh-_

**drowningsiren**: Yeah, most teachers do that... but the one I mentioned was really overdoing it. You know, we used to have a "class hour" once a week - time to discuss class issues (which we had, mind you), but he just kept talking about himself... He knew a lot, but he kept treating us like the students from 50 years ago :( Ah, I'm always happy to receive compliments like that - I try very hard not to let too much of my German slip into my English...

**optimistic girl94**: Thanks! I've experienced that quite often too... I get hooked on a story and just can't stop reading XD Um, yeah, perhaps I should have made that clear from the beginning (apologies, apologies!): in my universe, Domino is in America (hey, the names for cities are quite wacko in some cases anyway, so I just figured...). Again, sorry that I didn't point that out. I bet I confused a few people _-cringes a bit-_ I'd be scared too - that's why I usually hurry across the streets in the hopes of avoiding exactly such a thing...

* * *

The Art exam was "a piece of cake", as Joey put it afterwards. While they waited for Tristan and Seto (who were having computer science), Tea and the others excitedly asked how New York was. Joey gladly told them everything… **almost** everything. He didn't tell them what had happened at that one particular crossing, and there were two reasons for that: one, he didn't want to upset them, for in his opinion, they had worried about him enough; and two, if he would tell them, chances were high that Tristan would hear about it, and he wasn't about to take even the slightest risk that his best friend would turn against Seto before the CEO's role in the ordeal could be explained (and God knew that Tristan was short-tempered, although he kept denying it). No; what better way was there to avoid a possible argument than not bringing up the subject that caused it?

"I'm glad that you had such a good time," Yugi said when Joey had finished, "And just out of curiosity: how long does Kaiba want to keep up this secretiveness?"

"I dunno…"

"He's right – remember that a guy from the local newspaper comes to special occasions like the one on Friday for a few pictures…" Tea remarked.

"Oh yeah… Well, I'll leave it up to him. It's his image," Joey shrugged.

"They'll be watching you too when it comes out," Malik reminded him.

"So?"

"Just a reminder."

"Let's just wait and see how it goes. After all, what counts in the end is – **achoo**!" Ryou suddenly sneezed loudly.

"Bless you. You're not catching a cold, are you?" Tea asked and handed him a tissue.

Their white-haired friend blew his nose, then answered reassuringly: "No, it was just one of those unexpected sneezes, you know. Thank you, by the way."

Tea didn't look convinced, but didn't get a chance to say so because Seto and Tristan returned from their exam.

"Hey man, sounds like you really had a hell of a good time yesterday!" Tristan greeted his best friend with a clap on the back.

"What? You mean that –"

"Yep, good ol' Rich Boy told me a bit about it, imagine that!"

"Care to repeat that comment?" Seto asked darkly, crossing his arms.

"No, I don't think so," Tristan replied with a grin.

"The ice you're walking on is thinning."

"Oh no, Mount Kaiba is about to erupt! Run for your lives!" Tristan mimicked a panicky voice.

The others laughed, though not as loudly as they usually would have. For a moment, Seto thought that he really would erupt. _'Then again,'_ he thought as he watched them being silly as it was apparently "healthy" to do once in a while, _'perhaps this is just their way of having… fun…'_

"Taylor, you're such a…" he began, then silenced as he tried to think of an adequate expression.

"Such an idiot?" Tea offered.

"Hey!" Tristan exclaimed.

"No, that's not it…"

"A clown?" Yugi was grinning, just like the rest.

Seto strained a bit to keep himself from smiling. "No, not that either…"

Tristan was gaping at them as if they had turned into a bunch of Martians. Meanwhile, Ryou couldn't even bring a suggestion of his own because he was trying so hard to stifle his laughter.

"A goofball?" Of all grins, Joey's was definitely the biggest.

Seto thought about that shortly, then nodded with a smirk. "Yes, that's it. You're such a goofball, Taylor."

"Why you…!" The other brunet was at a loss for words and stopped in mid-sentence while the others amused themselves by the look on his face. Seto raised an eyebrow in the silent question of 'Yes…?'.

"If **I'm** a goofball, then **you're** a baboon."

"No, that title's yours."

"What?! When did you decide that?"

"A long time ago."

"Watch it, Kaiba; I've got plenty of other suggestions to what you are," Tristan retorted. Though he sounded quite grumpy, his friends knew that an ever so small part of him was enjoying this squabble – otherwise, he would have pounced on Seto a few remarks earlier.

"A-**hem**!" a chorus of voices said, and they turned around to see Seto's fan club standing at the entrance and for once, each and every pair of eyes was focused on someone else than Seto. In other words: Tristan.

"Care to voice any of those suggestions?" the lead girl asked in a menacing tone.

"Um… no, no, we were just joking around!" Tristan tried to reassure them. He had beaten up quite a few tough guys before, but he knew better than to trifle with obsessed females.

"Joking?!"

"You called him a baboon!"

"How dare you!"

"Get him, girls!"

Like a pack of wolves, they went for Tristan, who wisely turned tail and fled.

"Run, Tristan, run!" Yugi called after him.

"I'm running already…!"

"Dear L-L-… achoo!" Ryou sneezed again; not as loudly as before, but still… Tea sighed and covered her eyes with one hand – leave it to the others to decide why she did that.

"Looks like Taylor will be busy for a while," Seto commented as he watched the chase. Turning to his boyfriend, he asked: "Let's go home now, shall we?"

"What, you don't want to head on to the office?"

"Normally I would, yes, but not today." He lowered his voice. "In case Mokuba might be wondering…"

"You think he's suspecting something?"

Seto nodded.

Joey looked upset. "Darn it, I didn't mean for that to happen… Yeah, let's go…" He put on his happy face again to say goodbye to the others. "See you tomorrow, guys! Tell Tristan too, will ya?"

"Sure, Joey! Bye!" Ryou answered.

"See you on Friday!" Tea chimed in.

"Okay, bye, Tea!" With that, they left in order to get home before Seto's younger brother.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

When Mokuba got home from school, the living room and the kitchen – those places usually were occupied by Joey – were deserted. He hurried upstairs, eager to find either Joey or Seto and finally find out what was behind that slightly strange hug he had received yesterday. Both older teens were in Seto's study, looking at something on the laptop.

"Hello Mokuba," Seto said when he heard his brother enter the study.

The boy had a serious look on his face as he closed the door firmly behind him. "Neither one of you is gonna leave this room until I get some answers to whatever happened yesterday."

The look on Joey's face clearly indicated how he wished that he wouldn't need to talk about it at all. Seto's face had a rather neutral look, like he usually did when it was time for some serious talk.

"I can't deny that it's been bothering me all day long. I mean, did you fight? Were you robbed? What's the deal?"

"Come here, Mokuba," Seto answered calmly. His brother obeyed, and once he was there, the brunet hoisted him up onto his lap. "Look, we did have a great day yesterday, without a doubt. There was just one incident…" He paused, suddenly unsure of how he was supposed to put it.

Mokuba knew all too well that his brother tried to spare him from as many things as possible that would make him unhappy or even cause harm. Sometimes – more often than not when they happened to talk about such a subject – that meant that the elder tried to put things more nicely than they were in an attempt to keep him from getting upset. "Just tell me what happened, I'm not a little kid anymore…!"

"I almost got run over," Joey said abruptly, figuring that it really wasn't fair to keep him waiting like that.

The younger Kaiba gaped at him. There was no exclamation of "What!" or such, just silence.

"Seto saved me, though. I totally owe my life to him."

"…Run over?!" the boy finally said, repeating the first part.

"It all happened so quickly…"

Seto carried on: "I heard that high-pitched squealing that wheels make when a car comes round a corner fast. I had barely noticed that it would turn down our road when I grabbed Joey…"

"I'm sorry that I had you worrying, Mokuba, but I guess I just couldn't quite conceal my relief when I was so tired," the blond apologized.

"You don't need to apologize!" Mokuba reached out for him, and Joey came closer so the boy could hug him around the waist. "I'm so glad that you're alright…!"

"So am I… but don't forget who's the big hero in this," came the reminder.

"As if I would… Seto, you really are the best! I can't even say how happy I am that you saved Joey!"

The CEO was relieved that his brother wasn't half as upset as he would have guessed him to be. A little bit of that showed on his face, and of course the boy on his lap noticed that instantly:

"See, Seto, you don't have to beat around the bush so much anymore. I'm twelve and am well able of dealing with such things!"

"The 'well' might remain to be seen, but I guess otherwise you're right, Mokuba. I was just trying to avoid making you unhappy. I'll do my best to take your advice."

"Thank you, big brother." Now that the serious talk was out of the way, he continued more brightly: "So, honestly now: how **was** New York?"

"Why don't you take a look?" Seto asked with a smile, and a mouse click later, the pictures he and Joey had taken the other day were shown in a slideshow on the screen.

When it was over, Joey asked: "What did you like best, Mokuba?"

It didn't take the boy long to answer: "The Empire State Building."

"How come?"

"…Because. And that picture of you two is really great."

"He's right, you know," Seto remarked with a small smile.

"Undoubtedly," Joey grinned.

Mokuba reached out and grabbed Joey's hand (and almost fell in the process, but Seto quickly caught him) and pulled the blond closer. "I can tell that you want to kiss, so just do it already," he invited them.

"He sees right through us, doesn't he?" Joey asked amusedly.

"So he does. And once again, he's right," Seto replied, then proceeded to do exactly what Mokuba had told them to do. The raven-haired boy simply looked at the pictures again, though where the screen was black, he could see the reflections of the two people he loved most in the world…

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Thursday was the last test day, the PE test. Joey was looking forward to this even more than to Art. He was rather jumpy and couldn't wait to get started. In the changing room, they discovered that Bakura was there, but Ryou was nowhere in sight.

"He didn't look good this morning – probably catching a cold – so I said that I'd go in his place. All because he wants fresh air in his room, even at night…" He shook his head. "I saw it coming, but he insisted on leaving that damn window open."

"Such a shame for that to happen just before this special week," Marik commented as he put on a sleeveless shirt.

"Malik's not sick as well, is he?" Yugi asked.

"No, he's looking after Ryou."

"Lucky it was this class, huh?" Tristan smirked as they left the changing room.

"He'd have been royally screwed otherwise," Bakura agreed matter-of-factly.

"Alright, listen up!" the gym teacher said, "We'll make this short and sweet! First a warm-up, then apparatus gymnastics and dodgeball to top it off!"

"That's all? This will be a pushover!" Bakura remarked.

"You sound as if you've gotten an 'A' already!" Marik replied.

The tomb robber usually didn't give that much of a damn about school and why Ryou worried so much about it, but he knew that high grades definitely were a compliment, and those were always good to get. "Do you doubt that I'll get one?"

"No…"

"Have you played dodgeball before?" Joey asked during the warm-up.

Both Yamis answered: "No. What is it?"

"I bet you guys will like that. You throw balls at other people and try not to get hit yourself."

"How do they give grades?" Marik asked.

"It depends on your participation."

"I can imagine that the teacher will be quite surprised after that," Yugi said and gave a quick response to the questioning looks of the two "substitute students": "Concerning Malik, there probably won't be much of a difference, but Ryou… he hates dodgeball. And so do I, actually," he muttered.

"He throws like a girl," Tristan elaborated, "So he usually hangs around and does all the dodging, but no throwing." (1)

"Well, no more of that," Bakura declared with a wicked grin. Marik snickered, looking forward to it as well.

After the warm-up, they set up the "obstacle course" and had the teacher explain exactly what they had to do, and then it was basically a long period of waiting while they went through it one by one.

"I really should get back at you for not calling back those crazy fangirls of yours, Kaiba," Tristan said while they waited.

"Why so? Couldn't you outrun them?" the CEO smirked.

"I did, but I wouldn't even have had to if you'd have backed me up!"

"I don't bother talking to people who waste their time with something as senseless as an obsession."

"You know, there's something really sweet about the thought of letting you ski into a crevasse," Tristan retorted grimly.

"You wouldn't!" Yugi looked rather horrified at the thought while Seto looked unimpressed.

"Says who?"

"Yugi, your turn!" the gym teacher called.

"Oh no…" the teen groaned. It was a simple fact that the taller you were, the better – at least, that could be said for apparatus gymnastics. And since he was so short… when playing dodgeball, it was quite an advantage, but right now it surely wasn't one.

"Go on, Yug', you can do it!" Joey encouraged him.

"I hope so," his violet-eyed friend replied and approached the rings, looking as if he were facing the gallows. A few panicked minutes later, it was over, and he hurried back to his friends. "When the day comes that I won't have to do that anymore, I'll be eternally grateful!" he sighed.

"Ryou, you're up next!"

Bakura was deeply in conversation with Marik, so of course he missed his call.

"Um… Bakura? You should get going, it's your turn now," Yugi said hesitantly. He knew that the spirit hated getting interrupted…

"What?" A second later, he had caught on. "Oh. Finally, some action!" His excitement was practically radiating from him, and the teacher noticed this.

"Are you okay, Ryou?" he asked slowly.

"Yeah, I'm feeling **great**!" He left the man to wonder about him and did what they were asked to do. The way he went about it, it gave the impression that he had done this quite a few times before.

"That was… remarkable, Ryou. Well done," the teacher said faintly when Bakura was done and stepped aside with a triumphant grin. "Joey's next."

"All right!" the blond cheered and tackled the challenge. Tristan and Seto had been bickering about fangirls and crevasses, but now the CEO held up a hand to signal that any further remarks would have to wait.

"If you'd excuse me, Taylor; I'd like to enjoy the show."

"Hey, don't you start insulting Joey!"

Not taking his eyes off his boyfriend, Seto replied: "It's not an insult, it's a compliment. I happen to like what I'm seeing…"

Tristan didn't say anything more, so they watched Joey in silence. About fifteen minutes later (during which Joey enjoyed "his" show as well), that part of the test was done, and it was time for dodgeball. Bakura and Marik were happy that there was but one rule about throwing: no head-shots. The fewer rules, the happier they were…

It didn't take long for the others to find out that they were easily the most aggressive players: Bakura's aim wasn't as good as Marik's, but the tomb robber was more agile and harder to hit. And they both threw the balls quite hard. Their gym teacher goggled at them; especially at Bakura, thinking that Ryou had either done one hell of a workout or had drunk a particularly energizing fitness drink in the morning. As Yugi had predicted, he didn't notice too much of a change about "Malik", yet the boy didn't seem to be acting quite like he usually did… In the end, the class was entertained with the showdown between the two Yamis. The teacher was forced to make the field smaller and smaller until Marik finally could name victory his own. Nevertheless, Bakura too got a lot of awed compliments from the other "classmates"; the gang could see that he sometimes really needed to struggle to keep himself from correcting his congratulators (that no, he was **not** Ryou). Finally, he and Marik managed to get away from those constant remarks, and a short shower later, they left the gym building.

"My Hikari will be delighted to see a good grade on this test, I can't possibly be wrong about that!" Bakura grinned before their ways parted, "Man, I could've played that game a lot longer without getting tired of it! If only Ryou weren't so dutiful, then I might be able to do that more often," he added with a sigh.

"We could play it together every now and then; I mean, we had a pretty good duel at the end," Marik said. When Bakura nodded, he thought of something else: "And just think: then we could play without rules! No borderlines, no consideration…!"

They gave each other a high-five.

"I think it's for the better if they play among themselves," Yugi said, seeing the mad glint in their eyes – those two were wild ones, after all, and could always be had to stir things up.

"Yeah, birds of a feather…" Tristan agreed.

"Hey, did you notice? We're done with the tests! They're over! Finally!" Joey cheered. The others joined in too and did what looked like some weird little victory dance (except Seto, who just watched). Finally, they said goodbye to each other, leaving Bakura with a bunch of get-well-requests to pass on to Ryou…

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Friday mostly was a day like any other: Seto went to work, and Joey had a last-minute snowball fight with Mokuba to make use of the snow while it still lasted. In the late afternoon, however, he started to get ready for the evening – according to the schedule, the school treat would go from six pm to one am. Seto's original plan had been to come back home early enough so they could go there together, but while Joey was washing his hair, Mokuba received a phone call from the office that meant a change in plans. Shortly thereafter, Joey stepped out of the bathroom, one hand holding the towel around his waist and the other using a smaller towel to rub his hair dry.

"Joey, Seto called just before. He said that there are too many things left to be done in order to be there from the start. But he promises to come as fast as he can."

"Oh… I understand." The look of disappointment lingered only for a moment, much to Mokuba's relief. "Well, the others will be there too, so I surely won't be bored... and I promised to be there by six-thirty."

"Don't worry, I'm sure that Seto won't be very late!"

The raven-haired boy jumped off the bed he was sitting on and handed Joey the clothes he would wear.

"Thanks, sport."

"No problem."

When the blond came back, he wondered whether he should make an attempt to tame his hair. Mokuba shrugged and said: "It's up to you. Big brother surely wouldn't mind, whatever you do. How would you like to be, assuming that the truth is revealed tonight?"

"I'd just like to be myself," Joey answered with a short glance at his reflection in the mirror next to the closet.

"And that's always good," Mokuba said brightly.

"I hope so…"

The younger Kaiba saw through that statement right away and persisted: "You'll look good next to Seto, don't worry. He would have told you to give yourself a fancy appearance if he'd consider it necessary."

This reassured Joey quite a bit, so he went back to the bathroom to blow-dry his hair. It looked as untidy as ever when he was done, yet when he re-entered his room, Mokuba looked him over, grinned and said happily:

"Big brother will fall in love with you all over again."

"Aw… but I'm just wearing something different, otherwise I'm just me," Joey laughed and scratched the back of his head.

"Maybe, but you look really good in those clothes." Suddenly, Mokuba lifted his index finger – he had gotten an idea. "Ah, there's something more! C'mon!" Eagerly, he grabbed Joey's hand and dragged him to Seto's bedroom – more specifically, the bathroom.

"Um, what are you doing? Is that even allowed?" Joey wondered as he watched how Mokuba started to rummage in the cabinet next to the sink.

"I don't know, I've never done this before. But Seto won't mind in the end, trust me," the boy answered and suddenly cried triumphantly: "Aha, here it is!" He took out a middle-sized white bottle.

"What's that?" Joey asked suspiciously.

Mokuba held it out to him. "What does it look like?"

The blond inspected the bottle. "Crave" was written on it, and his eyes widened a bit. "Cologne?!"

"Yeah! And I just happen to know that that particular one has only been used once or twice so far, yet Seto really likes it – he said so himself!"

"Are you sure? I mean, it's not like we've asked him if we can use this…" Joey took off the cap and sniffed. "Hey, this smells pretty good!"

"That little bit you'd use…" Mokuba made a dismissive hand gesture. "He'd never notice. And when he'll get ready, I'll make sure that he uses a different one in case he considers to go for that one!" He pointed to the bottle. "Go on, put on a bit of it!" When Joey hesitated, however, he said: "On second thought, let me help you."

"How do you know how to do this?" Joey asked, "Hey, where are we going?"

"Can't do it here, otherwise he'll smell it," Mokuba answered as he pushed Joey back to his room, where he chose to give a quick answer to why he used a tissue: "Otherwise **I'd** smell like that stuff, and Seto would **definitely** be suspicious about that."

"Kid, you're truly amazing," Joey marveled as Mokuba put a bit of cologne on his wrists, the neck and even behind the ears.

"Watching Seto brings many advantages." Then he nodded, satisfied. "Now you're ready, Joey!"

"Thanks a lot, Mokuba. You're the best, and don't let anyone tell you anything different," the older teen told him and gave him a hug. "Right," he said when he stood straight again, "I gotta eat a little something before I go, though, otherwise I'll starve!"

"And **that** would be bad," Mokuba remarked as they headed downstairs. Joey made himself a simple sandwich, and then it was time to go. "Have a good time! See you tomorrow!" Mokuba told him at the door.

"Sure thing. See ya then, champ – and thanks again," Joey grinned and then went on his way to the school, really looking forward to the event.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Seto finally managed to get out of the office at 7.15. As usual when he arrived at home, he was greeted by Mokuba.

"Hi Seto! Had a good day?"

"Uneventful, but busy. But now I should get ready…"

"Are you looking forward to it? By the way, I helped Joey get ready!"

"Did you, now? You didn't mess him up, though?" Seto asked with a wink before disappearing into the bathroom.

Mokuba giggled. "Of course not! Sometimes you're so silly…!" When he heard the water running in the shower, he bounced around on his brother's bed a bit, though always being a bit careful so it wouldn't start to sag (he was sure that Seto would be immensely displeased in that case). As soon as he didn't hear the water anymore, he stopped and took a seat on the bed's edge, looking as innocent as most people thought he was. Since he didn't know what the brunet planned to wear, he stayed where he was until his sibling left the bathroom.

Seto looked as smart as always and was wearing a white shirt and a blazer. "So, Mokuba, what do you think?" he asked as he took a look in the mirror.

"I think it's great, big brother, really!"

The CEO nodded and – just as Mokuba had suspected – went back to the bathroom for a bit of cologne. The youngster followed and saw that there was no need for him to interfere, for his older brother decided to go with his favorite: "Attitude".

"That should do. I'll be going now, Mokuba. Don't stay up too late, okay?"

"Yeah, sure… Don't you want to have a bit of dinner or something?" he asked as they went back downstairs.

"No, I'm not hungry."

"You know, if Joey were still here –"

"I know, he'd be bugging me to eat something," Seto interrupted as he put on his coat, "He'll surely do that when I'm there, nevertheless…"

"Of course he will," Mokuba grinned, "Go enjoy yourself now, Seto!" He hugged the elder around the waist.

"See you then, little brother," Seto replied softly and returned the hug before finally leaving. Mokuba watched rather amusedly as he got into the limousine that would take him to the school – that was one of those habit differences between the two older teens…

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Admiring stares were directed at him from the moment he arrived at the school. Seto didn't need to look around to know that – the way the girls goggled at him, one didn't need eyes to notice. And he did what he always did when being confronted with such a nuisance: he looked neither to the left nor to the right with a dark look on his face, the look he had sported almost constantly before Joey had eventually changed his life. As he hung up his coat, he guessed that he looked more as if he were going to a funeral instead of a party, but if it kept people from talking to him – especially those pesky girls who seemed to pop up wherever he went – then such measures were inevitable.

Hoping to find Joey soon, he went to the auditorium. It wasn't spectacularly decorated, but that wasn't the aim anyhow – all that counted was that one could have a good time and dance when one felt like it. However, there were a few neon lights (probably provided by a couple of students) that illuminated parts of the large hall in blue, green, white and even pink. That color was on the other end of the room, though…

It was then that Seto noticed the man with the camera standing close by. Oh, just his luck: the reporter from the local newspaper. That meant that tomorrow morning, one page would be full of pictures plus a little article if anything unusual would happen. The students were quite familiar with the man, who had come to enjoy the evening almost as much as they did.

"Ah, Kaiba! Good evening! It's a pleasure to see you again!" the man remarked and ambled over when he spotted the CEO.

"Evening, Davis," Seto replied flatly. He knew that he had to be careful around this reporter – like Mokuba, the man had an incredible sense for hearing a lot out of someone's voice and reading facial expressions.

"My, aren't we looking handsome tonight! Found a lovely girl?"

_'Spare yourself the introduction and get to the point next time,'_ Seto thought exasperatedly, but answered: "Maybe."

"Oh, a maybe won't do! Please, do elaborate…"

"No."

"Did you already send her away like that poor girl last year? Oh, wait a minute…" he suddenly muttered.

"Allow me to refresh your memory a bit, Davis: I wasn't here last year," Seto snorted.

"Yes, now I remember! I must've been thinking of the year before that…"

_'Or the year before __**that**__, and the year before __**that**__, we know how the story goes.' _Seto remained silent as his eyes searched the crowd for a mop of blond hair, most probably untidy as always… Unfortunately, there were too many people who were constantly moving, and when he noticed that Davis was trying to follow his glances, he stopped.

"Looking for someone? Maybe I can help," the reporter offered.

"No, thanks," Seto replied.

"Hi Kaiba! How are you?"

Quite suddenly, Yugi was standing in front of them. Seto mildly wondered why he hadn't seen him coming – then again, he must have emerged from the crowd in the last moment, and since he was so short…

"Fine, Yugi. And you?"

"Never better. Hey, we're over there, if you want to join us…" The short teen pointed, but Seto didn't look, for he had noticed that Davis was distracted by a bunch of girls. Their giggling and the direction in which they pointed left no doubt to what their discussion topic was.

"Listen, Yugi, where's Joey?" Seto asked quickly in a hushed voice.

"Last I saw him, he was running off with Tristan – running from your fan club."

"Where to?"

"Somewhere upstairs; they were in an awful hurry."

"I see. Don't you say **anything** to that bozo, you hear?" he said, nodding to Davis, who for once seemed to wish to make the folks who had distracted him simply disappear.

"Okay. See you later, I hope."

Seto nodded, then turned around and quickly left. As he stepped over the threshold, he heard the girls cry out in disappointment. He headed straight for the nearest flight of stairs and was halfway up them when he heard a few people call his name. When he didn't answer, he heard Davis exclaim "Darn!", and then he knew that they would head back into the hall. Good, now he could search in peace…

On the second floor, he only encountered a few people, but none of them were either Joey or Tristan. He was luckier on the third floor – though not necessarily from the get-go; it was rather obvious that they were hiding somewhere around here, for a bunch of fan girls were practically patrolling the corridors. Seto peered around a corner and even saw one standing in front of the boys' bathroom! Alright, so they couldn't be in there…

"I can't believe it! Where did they go to?!"

"Maybe they managed to escape back downstairs…"

"Did you search the classrooms?"

"Yes…"

Seto rolled his eyes and thought: _'Just go, go do girly things or whatever – just __**go**!' _His patience was taxed greatly, but finally the girls decided that they would have to give up.

"Let's go back down…"

"Yeah, and maybe we'll see Seto!"

They all squealed and ran down the stairs as if stung by an adder. When he was sure that they had descended at least one flight of stairs, Seto left his hiding spot. Actually, it hadn't been that much of one – he had merely waited on the landing between the third and fourth floor. Now he could freely show himself again without attracting a horde of obsessed girls.

A faint thumping noise caught his attention, and when he heard two badly muffled voices, he smirked.

"D'you think they're gone?"

"Dunno… I sure don't hear anything…"

Seto walked up to the broom closet where the voices were coming from. When he was almost there, he heard someone hiss:

"Oh shit, someone's coming! Ssh…!"

The tall brunet stopped in front of the door and waited. _'What will you do now, I wonder?'_ For a moment, everything was silent except for the dull booming from the auditorium, but then the two voices started whispering again:

"That was weird…"

"Think the coast's clear now?"

"There's only one way to find out…"

The door opened only a little bit at first, but then it was pushed open for good, and Tristan came out. He wasn't exactly crawling, but he wasn't walking upright like the true homo sapiens either. Suddenly, he looked up and spotted Seto.

"Yikes!" he yelled as he stumbled backwards and crashed into Joey, who had just started to leave the extremely small closet as well.

"Whoa! Tristan, what the…?!"

Seto couldn't help himself – he simply **had** to laugh. And seeing Tristan's face turn beet-red with embarrassment and maybe even a bit of anger didn't help him stop, either.

"Geez, Kaiba, why the hell didn't you say anything?" Tristan fumed as he got up, glaring at the CEO who was now even holding his sides a bit.

"Good Lord, Taylor, you looked so hilarious…!"

"But why –"

"Seto! You're here!" Joey had quickly gotten to his feet and hugged Seto tightly, who did his best to regain as much of his composure as he could.

"Hello puppy…" He kissed his cheek. "Sorry that I kept you waiting for so long."

Joey grinned. "Well, I can't say I was bored; not when I had to run from those girls…"

Tristan pretended to dust himself off a bit, then said in an only slightly grumpy tone of voice: "Let's go back, Yugi and the others will wonder if they've locked us away or what the heck…"

But Seto didn't budge. He firmly held on to Joey's arm and was breathing deeply. The blond looked just a little nervous, but didn't say anything. Tristan just stared at them.

"I know this…" Seto brought Joey's wrist close to his nose as if in an attempt to make sure of something. "God, you smell so good…" he muttered in a sensual whisper.

"It's your cologne, isn't it?" Tristan asked Joey as he watched Seto with a raised eyebrow.

"No, not mine. It's his."

"You invaded my bathroom?" Seto asked and looked his boyfriend straight in the eye.

"Um… well… it was Mokuba's idea," Joey said timidly.

"That little rascal!" the elder Kaiba remarked softly, but then he took another deep breath and continued: "But it's perfect for you, pup, so I guess I can easily forgive him."

_'That's what he figured as well,' _Joey thought. "That'd be good – it was well-meant, and he really was a big help when I was getting ready."

"I know. He told me before I went…" He cast a glance at Tristan and smirked. "Perhaps we should get going before Taylor can't take it anymore."

"Am I not even allowed to wait for you guys anymore?" the other brunet huffed as they made their way to the stairs and headed back down.

"You're awfully touchy, aren't you?" Seto retorted nonchalantly.

"That cologne has one hell of an effect on you." A headshake accompanied those words.

Joey would have guessed that this would be another tense moment, but to his and Tristan's surprise, Seto only laughed at that comment. Soon, however, he joined in, and by the time they got to the auditorium, Tristan was even chuckling as well.

"There you are! We were really starting to worry when they came back, but there was no trace of you guys for ages!" Tea exclaimed when the trio joined them.

"God praise the broom closet. We were found anyway in the end when **he** snuck up on us," Tristan answered with a meaningful glance at Seto.

Bakura was there too with one arm around Ryou, who was very warmly dressed (one could see that he wasn't quite up to the mark, but he also didn't look as if he had a fever or something), and the spirit could tell that the blue-eyed teen was quite amused. "I bet you gave them a bit of a scare, right?" The look he got was all he needed to tell that he was right, and he sniggered: "Each scare's a good one, in my opinion! Way to go, Kaiba!"

Meanwhile, people around them noticed Seto. Those who could see his amused expression were quite frankly baffled. Just a few moments later, it seemed, Davis appeared.

"Hello again, Kaiba! Have you found who you were looking for in the meantime?"

Seto stifled a groan. "…Yes," he finally answered.

"Oh! Where is she?" When the teens in front of him remained silent, he paused. "Do you even **have** a date?"

"If I answer you, will you please leave me alone afterwards?" Seto asked irritably.

"Yeah, sure!"

"If you don't, I'll sue you."

Davis knew that this wasn't an empty threat, and he wasn't exactly fond of the thought of spending his hard-earned money to pay the fine. So what else was there to do? "I am aware of that. You have my word."

_'For your sake, that had better be worth something,'_ Seto thought.

"Alright, we made a deal. …Could I get that answer, now?"

Seto smugly noticed that the man sounded rather hesitant. Some methods never failed… "Yes, I have a date."

"…Her, then?" Davis pointed at Tea.

Seto shook his head, then put his hands on Joey's shoulders and made the blond inch a bit closer. "Him."

The reporter stared, and a few people who were really close by started whispering among each other. Marik frowned and was about to poke the man, just to see if he was still alive, when said man spoke:

"…This is… unexpected."

"I figured as much," Seto replied matter-of-factly.

"And you are…?" Of course, the question was posed to the CEO's official date.

"Joey Wheeler."

Davis appeared to be in thought for a moment, probably pondering whether that name rang any bell in him, then he blinked and said: "The kid who was arrested by his own father?"

"…Yeah…"

Seto felt how Joey tensed up as he wished that he wouldn't be asked any questions concerning that matter. He narrowed his eyes, and although being nosy, Davis was also smart, so he got the message.

"Just wanted to be sure. Picture for the paper?" he asked hopefully, holding up his camera.

"That 'dangerous look' of Kaiba's sure has its ways." Marik and Bakura were impressed.

"It's been a while since I last saw it," Tea said thoughtfully, remembering times when Seto had seemingly worn that look day in, day out.

Joey looked at Seto, who told him quietly: "One, okay?"

"Okay."

"One, Davis. And **only** one," he repeated.

The reporter guessed that he could be glad to even **get** one, so he didn't protest at all as he prepared the camera. Seto put his arms around Joey's waist. Now more people were looking and whispering, some even pointing – yet plenty others were still totally absorbed with dancing, being in a world of their own.

"No matter what, puppy, I won't regret this. I love you, and that's the way it is."

"I love you too…"

"Yet you're nervous, right?" Seto concluded.

"…A bit," Joey admitted.

"I'll teach you how to handle them."

"Thanks…"

Davis interrupted them: "There we go! Now… um… smile!"

The two of them did (as expected, Joey more so than Seto, who figured that those who knew how happy he really was would know that he could also smile just as well as his boyfriend, but now he actually thought that Davis had had enough surprises for one night), and when the flash had passed, the reporter thanked Seto for the opportunity before retreating back to the crowd of students, in search of a few snapshots.

"…That went quite well, didn't it?" Yugi asked.

"Indeed. Some of them have more sense than others," Seto answered.

"Now you're really gonna be famous, Blondie!" Bakura said to Joey.

"So? I really don't care as long as they don't go saying that I'm only with Seto because of that."

"Some **will** say that, no matter what." The brunet shrugged. "But **we'll** know the truth."

"Now it's time to rock! Surely you want to make use of your freedom, no?" Marik asked, eager for some action.

"If the music's good…" Joey began to say, and then a new song came up: Belinda Carlisle's "Heaven is a place on earth".

"Unlike that," Seto remarked, rolling his eyes. (2)

"You don't like this song?" Tea looked very happy about it.

"I'm not surprised **you** like it." He said this too quietly for her to hear, but she might not have heard anyway because she had started to dance and sing. "Joey, could we get out of here for a moment?"

"You really don't like this, right?"

"Why else would I be asking?"

"Maybe you'd have… other reasons," he winked.

"Yes, that's another way of looking at it…"

"Gotcha. Guys, we'll be right back."

"Take your time," Bakura grinned, making a shooing gesture.

"You don't need to tell us," was all Seto said before he left, followed by Joey.

"I know!" the thief called after them, then laughed as he turned back to Ryou, who was humming along with the melody.

The song came and went, yet Seto and Joey didn't come back for at least 45 minutes. In an empty, dark classroom, the brunet had insisted on doing what they would have done earlier if Tristan hadn't persuaded them to return to the party. Joey was far from protesting and decided that there was a very good reason why the cologne he had borrowed was called "Crave"… (3)

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Three hours later (during which Marik and Bakura took the liberty of freaking out over "Born to be wild"), the majority of them was tired and somewhat glad when the party came to an end. Ryou could barely stop yawning, and Bakura hurried to get him home so he could make full use of the weekend to (hopefully) recover for the trip they would be having next week. A peaceful weekend and a whole week full of fun to look forward to – that definitely was the life…

* * *

(1) I don't mean to pick on Ryou or anything, but I just can't imagine him liking a game like that...

(2) Mmh... definitely can't picture Seto liking this (I do, though, every once in a while)...

(3) Cue for some fantasy ;)

Corrections/alternative suggestions for strange words or something (if necessary) are welcome...

Review, _s'il vous plaît_! (omg, I'm speaking French! It's so unusual for me...)


	23. Chapter 23

Is it just me, or am I updating fast? I think I am - and with good reason: I'm still having school vacation until the middle of February, but then there's no more vacation until summer, so that means that I wanna make good use of the time-off weeks I still have left! I wish it were like in Alice Cooper's song: "School's out forever!" _-sigh-_ Yes folks, I'm back into wishful thinking... Ah, don't mind me and enjoy the chapter instead!

**Solo's Orca**: Thank you very much! I'm always glad to hear from you...

**finalfantasys-child**: I'm definitely trying... thanks for your encouragement!

**dragonlady222**: Well, half of them were probably busy dancing or something - and I bet Seto would've defended him ;) I'm happy that you enjoyed the chapter!

**petalpixie**: Hehe, yeah, you're right about the fangirls ;) Glad you liked it!

**bookworm3213**: Thanks :D Hehe, I've got at least three weeks of "vacation" to look forward to, so I'll have quite a bit of time to keep working on this... shouldn't be too long :)

**RomanGoddess4eva**: Hope I didn't keep you waiting for too long - enjoy the chapter :)))

* * *

Mokuba definitely wasn't surprised that no one else was up when he woke up the following day. He hurried downstairs, where he found the newspaper on the doormat – and then the phone rang.

Wondering who that could possibly be, he answered the call so he wouldn't need to wake his older brother up. It was Seto's secretary, who requested that her boss should call her back as soon as possible. Mokuba knew better than to ask whether this was important or not and promised to tell his brother. After that, he went to the kitchen, got himself a bowl of his favorite cereal and then finally had a good look at the newspaper. All he wanted to know was on the front page:

It featured a big picture of Joey and Seto, above which bold letters said: "The (unexpected) truth revealed!" The article was shorter than Mokuba would have guessed it to be, and when he read it, he guessed that the reporter – a guy named Davis – had probably simply still been too surprised to write a long, tabloid-press like article (which he had done before, as the Kaiba brothers both remembered – on such occasions, Mokuba tended to be the one who actually read it, while Seto would simply have tossed it on the stack of waste paper).

Underneath the article, Davis had included several opinions of students he had interviewed at the party. The other page that was about the party simply featured the "traditional" selection of snapshots: a bunch of teens goofing off and having a good time. Mokuba knew that there was a good reason why there was only one picture of the new couple – how was one supposed to enjoy himself if being constantly distracted by the flashing of a camera? The media would get more pictures anyway, one way or another…

About half an hour later, Joey and Seto came down to find Mokuba absorbed in the TV's morning program.

"Morning, kiddo! Did you enjoy having the house all to yourself?" Joey asked, tousling the black hair shortly.

"Yeah… though I don't do much different things than normal." He grinned at Seto's skeptical look, then showed them the newspaper. "I guess you had some time for yourselves despite the big revelation, since this is the only picture?"

While Joey curiously read the article, Seto answered: "Indeed. This news," (his eyes darted back to the headline), "or the 'unexpected truth', as it is described here, must have had a greater impact on Davis than I thought. And he did stay true to his word, after all."

Noticing that the elder was impressed, Mokuba concluded: "You probably said that you'd sue him, not trusting his promise, right?"

"Correct, but not all reporters are smart enough to heed that warning – few are, in fact," Seto replied with a shrug.

"Man, this is weird… I never would've thought that I'd read my name in the newspaper," Joey remarked when he was done with it. Noticing the pointed look he was given, he added quickly: "Before we got together, I meant."

"Since it won't be the last time you ever will, here's the first advice I give to you: don't read each and every article that mentions you. That will drive you wild, and besides, almost all of them aren't even worth reading."

"Like I'd go rooting through the paper every day just for that," Joey protested, "But this one's kinda special…"

Seto didn't admit it verbally, but he agreed. Who would he have been to deny that…?

"Big brother, your secretary called…" Mokuba interjected just then.

"And I should call her back, undoubtedly," Seto finished, "I'll be back soon…" He went to the phone in the hallway, and Mokuba and Joey listened, muting the TV. "Hello Carol, Mokuba just told me that you called…" There was a longer pause, then: "I see. How long? …Mmh-hmm…"

The others caught a glimpse of him as the brunet quickly headed for the stairs, then the rest of the conversation was lost as well.

"Must be something important; he sure looked serious," Joey said.

"Seto's **always** serious regarding work – but this really must be important," the younger Kaiba agreed, "Carol doesn't call him for every little thing."

"Like others have probably done?" Joey guessed.

"Yeah. Carol's the best secretary he's had so far. And she's one of the very few who isn't after him…" Mokuba rolled his eyes exasperatedly.

"That must have been tough," the blond sighed.

"Annoying, if anything. He also tried a couple of men, but they were almost worse than the women… you know, responsibility-wise…"

A couple of minutes later, they heard Seto coming back, and when they saw him shortly, he even looked a bit amused.

"…Yes, yes I know… no, of course not… thank you, C– …Carol, yes! Thank you!" He laughed shortly. "You too. Yes, I'll tell him. Bye."

"What was all that about?" Mokuba asked when his older brother was back again.

"She couldn't resist talking about the 'big news'," Seto replied, miming quotation marks, "and once she starts, she barely stops."

"You like her, don't you?" Joey asked, remembering how he and his friends had once agreed that there was no way that the blue-eyed teen treated his employees any better than he treated other people besides Mokuba.

"As surprising as it may be to you, but it's true. She's very competent and doesn't pester me all the time, trying to go out with me… if she keeps that up, I imagine that she could be my secretary for quite a few years to come."

"I told you that you'd get lucky someday, Seto!" Mokuba said happily.

"I know you did, little brother."

"What did Carol want, anyway?"

"It was about a business trip in February."

"February?!" Joey blurted out, "But you'll still come to Ski Beech, right?"

"Yes, puppy, don't worry. But I'll be leaving on Wednesday after we get back from there."

"How long? Where to?" Mokuba asked.

"Three weeks in Munich."

"Isn't that in…?" Joey thought for a moment. "…Germany?"

"Precisely. I've already checked about the time difference – you will be 6 hours behind my time." He saw how they both looked rather unhappy. "I'll call you, I promise."

"You had better," Mokuba retorted, but he knew that that was a promise that was always kept.

"And what if **we** want to call **you**?" Joey inquired.

"Leave that to me. It all depends on whether I'm not having too much on my plate, and then there's also the time difference – but when those two things add up, I will call. Ask Mokuba."

"Yeah, big brother never lied when it came to that," the boy confirmed.

"I'm so glad that you'll be coming along for some fun!" Joey beamed, "I was worried for a moment!"

"That would have been an extreme coincidence… By the way, Carol hopes that you'll have a good time."

"By golly, I will!" Joey declared, and once again Seto thought that if the blond had a tail, he would be wagging it like mad…

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

_'God… is it just me, or does that thing sound louder every time it goes off?!'_ Joey wondered when a familiar shrill beeping rudely awakened him. He yawned heartily, rolled over – and felt his nose make contact with another nose.

"Seto…" he moaned.

"I know…" Drowsily, the other teen groped for the pesky alarm clock and managed to silence it.

"What time is it again?" Joey asked, keeping his eyes closed.

"4.25. You haven't forgotten why, have you?"

"No… but it's still so **early**…"

"Two more minutes, okay? But then we really need to get up."

"Mmh-hmm," was the only reply that was given before Joey snuggled up against Seto, who automatically put his arms around him. It was in that short, serene moment that Seto lost track of the time (he had planned to estimate when the promised two minutes were over, but so much for that) as he closed his eyes again, enjoying the warmth that he felt, even through his pajamas. He had just started to think that things were… well, **perfect**… when that annoying beeping made them both jump.

"Ugh… didn't you turn it off?!" Joey groaned and started to rub his eyes.

"I thought I had. Must've hit the snooze button instead," Seto muttered and turned around to turn the clock off for good. And while doing so, he saw the time – and sat upright in a flash. "Joey, get up. Now!"

"Time?"

"4.35." The brunet stood up and went straight for the bathroom, not stopping as he picked up his clothes along the way. Joey swore under his breath and hurried to get out of bed. It felt like being late for school – which was almost right, for that was exactly where the bus would pick them up. He had barely finished dressing when Seto strode past him.

"I'll be downstairs. I need a coffee…" he excused himself.

"What about your bag?" Joey called after him (though not too loud, for he didn't want to wake Mokuba up).

"In a moment. Coffee's first," came the faint reply. (1)

Joey sighed. "**That's** what I call a slave to a routine." Spontaneously, he decided to do Seto a favor and take his bag down for him. That way, they could just have "breakfast" and then walk straight out the door… and maybe take it easy just a little bit. He had reached the door now and deposited the two bags there before going to the kitchen. There, he found Seto drinking the aforementioned coffee, but not out of an ordinary espresso cup – it looked as if he was drinking twice as much as usual.

"Sheesh, aren't you a caffeine-addict! It's like you're in love with the stuff!" Joey grinned as he got himself a bit of orange juice.

"Jealous?" Seto asked, his eyebrows raised.

"I don't think I have to be."

"True. I should go get my things now…"

"Don't bother; I already got it for you."

"I hope you were careful with the laptop," Seto said as he drained the rest of the coffee.

"…The laptop?" Joey repeated.

"Yes, that's what I said. Let me guess: you forgot it?"

"But why –?"

"I can't afford to leave it behind – especially since I'll be having a meeting when we get back."

"And what about –"

"I'll do that too, but I need the computer," Seto interrupted him, then checked his watch. "We must get going now. I'll be right back." Just when he was about to walk past the other teen, he paused. "Nevertheless, I appreciate your help, puppy."

"I can't believe I forgot the laptop… should've known…" Joey muttered.

"It's okay. We haven't left yet, after all," Seto reassured him with a short pat on the shoulder, then he went to get his computer so that they could finally go. When he left the mansion, Joey was just loading the second bag into the car trunk (constantly telling the driver that the man didn't need to help), and then they were off, off to the school.

The big bus was already there as well as most of their classmates. Most of them looked really sleepy – several others, though, including Bakura, Malik and Marik, were definitely awake. Mr. Davidson checked the new arrivals off the list, and now only Tristan wasn't there yet.

"Well, he **did** say that he might have a…" Yugi stifled a yawn, "…a hard time getting up," he mumbled the rest of the sentence and leaned against Yami, whose eyes were only half-open as he gazed into nowhere, it seemed.

"It's still kinda weird – I mean, usually **I'm** the one who's late," Joey grinned.

"Yes, but now you're with Kaiba, and Kaiba's always on time, and… stuff…" Tea trailed off as she started muttering undistinguishable things.

"You can go board the bus now; we'll go as soon as Tristan gets here," Mr. Davidson told them when the bus driver had finished loading the students' bags (minus Seto's laptop and the little bit of hand luggage). Eagerly, the teens complied, since most of them were looking forward to sleeping for the first hour or two… or perhaps even more.

"Wow, this thing's even heated!" Bakura said, impressed, as he got on the bus behind Ryou.

"I get the window seat," his lighter half claimed, "Or else you'll be clambering over me, as I know you won't be able to sit still."

"If you hand me my music," Bakura retorted.

"Deal… but keep it down…"

Joey was right behind them and heard the discussion. "Seto, can I have the window?"

"Actually, **I** want it…"

"But you've had a lot of coffee, so you'll be awake! So you know, in case you'd want to stand up…"

"Hmm… agreed, but only if I get the window on the way back."

"Deal!"

The gang claimed the seats at the back of the bus, and Bakura took it a step further: he dumped their backpacks on the seats that faced each other on either side of the aisle.

"What did you do that for?" Yami asked.

"Hey, there's enough room for everyone! And it's the ideal place to play something later on!"

"Tomb robber, you didn't even ask if we **want** that."

"Trust me; you guys are **always** up for that," the thief smirked.

"Later, Bakura," Ryou reprimanded him.

"Yeah, catch some z's first," Joey agreed as he sat down next to Seto.

"You could think about what we'll play afterward," Yugi offered.

"Good idea…" Bakura said thoughtfully, but once more, his Hikari saw through him:

"Don't even think about it. No strip poker or anything like that."

"But that's **fun**! Can we do it when we're there?"

Ryou just rolled his eyes, then leaned against the window and closed his eyes. Bakura pouted for a couple of seconds, but then regained his usual expression as he began rooting around in the backpack for his mp3 player.

A spike of brown hair appeared at the front of the bus.

"Hi guys. Sorry I'm late…" Tristan stretched as he joined his friends. Tea had saved him a place next to her, and he was obliged to make use of that.

"Good thing you came, man," Joey said, opening one eye, "Who else would teach me and Seto how to ski?"

"A regular ski instructor," the brunet next to him answered immediately.

"Aw, it'll be much more fun with Tristan!"

"We'll see about that," Seto replied curtly.

"Hmpf, look who's narrow-minded now," his future instructor snorted, ignoring the glare he got for that comment.

"Now that we're complete, let the trip begin! I hope we'll all have lots of fun from now on!" Mr. Davidson said as the bus engine started up. Though the majority of the cheers that followed this sounded exactly like the students felt, he beamed, knowing that quite soon, they would be enjoying themselves immensely.

And thus the 8-hour drive to North Carolina began…

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

"Could you please decide sometime soon?"

"Don't rush me!"

"He's right, Bakura; just pick three! I've got such a good hand, I wanna start…!"

"Alright, alright already! There!" Bakura snarled, slapping three cards face-down onto Seto's outstretched hand.

"Slowpoke!" Marik teased his white-haired friend.

"Hey, don't you start getting on my case just for weighing the odds!" Bakura snorted.

"Whatever for? Because you think that you might win?" Seto smirked.

The face of the one sitting across from him darkened with a minor pout. "Hey, it could happen!"

"In your dreams," Seto muttered.

"Two of clubs goes first! Take that!" Malik said, fancily throwing down the card onto the pad on which they kept track of the score.

"It's just the bloody two, we saw that coming!" Bakura groaned.

"That was a warning. Brace yourselves: I've got the best hand," the Egyptian replied smugly.

"We'll see about that."

Seto didn't say anything as he made his move. They had been playing for about half an hour now (and had been on the road for almost three hours so far), and he was easily the most silent player of them all. And he was winning. Marik claimed that there was still a chance that someone else would win; Seto let him have that little dream. Vain hope was fun to watch every now and then…

A couple of tricks later, he was taking a little too long to decide what to play, according to the others.

"**Today**, Kaiba!"

"Did he space out?"

"Earth to Kaiba! Do you read me?"

Seto successfully managed to pursue his train of thoughts throughout those annoying remarks. It was stressing him, but he could concentrate if he really wanted to… Abruptly, he played his card of choice and was rewarded with a moment of silence before the other three burst into laughter.

"What a sap! Taking the Queen of Spades!"

"Ha! That sucked, Kaiba!"

"You're going down! That's 13 points for you!"

"Oh, darn, I had no other options," Seto said calmly._ 'If they knew…'_

The laughter didn't cease as he claimed the Hearts with each new trick. Once, he even heard one of them call him "stupid", but he didn't let it get to him, for in his opinion, **they** were the stupid ones. A few tricks later, the round was done, and they checked their tricks for the Hearts. Bakura and Marik sounded like hyenas more than anything else at this point.

"Ooh, Kaiba got all the Hearts **and** the Queen! Ha!"

"Amazing play, really! Couldn't have played crappier myself!"

Malik didn't join in the laughter, worried about the smug expression on the brunet's face. Something wasn't right… "Aren't you upset?" he finally wondered.

"Of course I'm not. You wouldn't be, either, if you would catch on," Seto answered.

"Pff! Now he's going bonkers!" Marik jeered.

"No, I'm not. You all get 26 points," Seto said flat-out and noted that.

"What?! **Why**?!" the two Yamis yelped, taken aback.

Seto sat back and crossed his arms casually. "I shot the moon." (2)

They gaped at him. "Boloney," Bakura finally protested, "How can you shoot the moon?"

"He's right," Malik whimpered, realizing what the CEO had done.

"Explain, love," Marik pleaded.

"He took all the Hearts and the Queen of Spades. That way, you get no points in the end, but the others get 26 each."

"…That sneak!" they exclaimed in unison.

"If you knew that strategy and would have the essential luck, wouldn't **you** seize the opportunity too?" the so-called sneak shot back.

"…Yes…" they grumbled.

"Now we know why he was thinking for so long," Bakura huffed.

"The candidate gets 100 points," Seto sneered.

Just before the ancient thief could say something very nasty, a commotion behind them indicated that the others had woken up as well.

"What're you playing?"

"Who's winning?"

"Hearts. Three guesses who's winning," Malik answered.

Before anyone could answer, Bakura turned to Yami. "Pharaoh, why don't you go kick his ass? Someone else should win for a change…"

"What's the matter, can't handle a loss?" Yami asked.

"**You** try playing for thirty minutes against a guy who shoots the moon," Bakura grumbled.

"Why don't you just play something different?" Yugi suggested.

Bakura pursed his lips and stared forebodingly at Seto: "We're not done with this yet. And otherwise I'll smoke your ass for sure when it comes to strip poker."

"Dream on…"

Ryou quickly interfered before Bakura could initiate an argument: "How about if we play something that everyone can participate in?"

"Such as? You didn't bring a second deck, did you?" Tristan said.

"No, but what about Categories? All you need is a piece of paper and a pen…"

"How does it work?" Marik asked, and Ryou explained as he handed each of them a pen from the pencil-case he had brought along.

"We decide on a certain number of categories, then someone recites the alphabet – not saying anything, though. Then someone says stop, and the first person recalls which letter he had stopped at, and then everyone tries to write a word that begins with that letter in the categories. Whoever is finished first yells 'stop', and then you count points. For each unique answer, you get two points instead of one."

"Sounds like fun! What will the categories be?" Yugi asked.

"Suggestions?"

"Food!" Joey yelled.

"That figures," Seto smirked, to which Joey cuffed him playfully.

"Animals!" Tea chirped.

"Cities!" Malik added.

"…Rivers?" Marik threw in hesitantly.

"Plants." Ryou gave some input too, "Perhaps two more…"

"Countries." Seto looked rather eager to get started – of course, he regarded this as an opportunity to beat Yami (and trying something else than Duel Monsters).

For a moment, they were silent as they tried to think up something else, and then Tristan blurted out: "Sports!"

"Oh Jesus…" Yugi sighed. _'If we ever get the letter 'a', I definitely know what I'm going to write…'_ (3)

"Tea, you can go first. Yami, you tell her when to stop," Ryou instructed.

The brunette closed her eyes for good measure, and then Yami waited for a while.

"Stop."

"M," she told them, and then they all started to write down as many things as quickly as possible. Seto was done first, and everyone groaned when he signaled that. Answers were compared, and those ranged from the Mississippi river, Melbourne and moss all the way to macaroni, Martial Arts and maggots. (4) The other students kept looking back at them, wondering what they were playing that could possibly make them laugh and argue so much…

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

When they had almost reached Virginia, they were still playing the game and had gotten through half the alphabet – and were now currently discussing "d". (5)

"What animals did you guys get?" Yugi asked, "I put down 'duck'…"

"A dove!" Tea suggested happily.

"Sorry, that's only one point; I wrote that too," Ryou said.

"My choice is 'God' spelled backwards," Seto smirked.

The others started laughing, and Joey sighed. "'Dog'… of course."

"What else, since my inspiration is sitting right next to me?"

"Woof," the blond replied sarcastically, and that made them all laugh again.

"I bet I get two points for mine!" Bakura spoke up eagerly, "**I** wrote 'dodo'!"

"But that thing's **extinct**!" Tristan argued.

"So what?! It's an animal!"

"Or a human…" the pointy-haired brunet muttered.

"You're just jealous of my originality!" Bakura snorted.

"Does that count?" Yami asked Ryou (he was the referee, sort of).

"Well… oh dear, we should have decided that when we started, sorry I forgot about that… who thinks that should count?"

"I do!" Marik answered immediately, "I wrote 'dinosaur'…!"

"That's **really** extinct," Joey remarked.

Ryou listened to their discussion for a while before going for a compromise: "How about if we allow extinct animals, but you only get one point?"

"Fair enough…" the others agreed.

"Okay. Rivers, anyone?" Malik carried on.

"The Danube!" Tea cried.

"That's the same that I have too! Again!" Ryou exclaimed, and suddenly he and Tea started to sing a melody while pretending to be the directors of an orchestra or something.

"What is **that**?" Bakura groaned, covering his ears.

"Classical music. Or have you never heard of 'On the beautiful blue Danube'?" Seto asked, recognizing the tune.

"Definitely not. My taste of music is much different," the tomb robber growled. To his relief, the other two only hummed the most popular part of that particular song.

"There's a rest stop coming up – would you like to stop there?" Mr. Davidson called. This certainly was okay with the students, for they cheered. A couple of minutes later, the bus stopped at the aforementioned stop, and the teens seized the opportunity to go to the bathroom and/or go buy drinks, sweets etc.

As Mr. Davidson waited at the bus until everyone would be done (figuring that there was no need to keep a strict eye on them; how much could go wrong at a rest stop?), he noticed Seto standing at the rear end of the bus, talking on the cell phone. As he watched the teen, he wondered... He began to slowly approach the CEO – and was in luck, for when he was almost there, the conversation on the telephone was over.

"Hello… um, Seto… how are you doing?" he asked friendly.

The brunet gave him a look that made him wonder whether it had been a bad decision to address him by his first name, but finally replied: "Fine, I guess. Why do you ask?"

"Because I care about the wellbeing of my students and was therefore wondering if I could talk to you for a moment."

"Whatever about, I wonder?" Seto said sarcastically, "Certainly something the press would love to hear about…"

"Since you put it like that, I assume that you've already guessed what matter I intend to bring up. I can assure you, though, that it's only out of personal curiosity."

Seto knew that Joey would have long since allowed himself to get engaged in the discussion (and would probably convince him to do the same). Maybe he could give it a shot… "If you promise not to pass on whatever I might tell you," he said.

"I give you my word of honor."

"I'll remember that," Seto told him, signaling that he was ready for the actual conversation.

Mr. Davidson looked towards the shop and saw how Joey and Tristan were having a vivid "argument" with the three spirits (though Yami was merely watching and acting as if he didn't quite see the point in this) over what appeared to be gummi bears, as the golden glint in the sunlight suggested.

"I can't help but wonder how you and Joey… you know, got together. After all the arguments and fights you've had with each other, as my colleagues could confirm…" He trailed off.

"It took quite a while," Seto answered, choosing his words carefully nevertheless, "Actually, I couldn't name the point along the line when my opinion of him changed to that degree, now that I think about it," he mused.

"So… are you living together?"

"Yes…"

"But what about his father? I was quite concerned when –"

"That bastard isn't worth wasting your breath on!" Seto hissed. Mr. Davidson stared at him, then he continued: "Pardon my French, but that's my plain and simple view of that man."

"So he really did mistreat Joey?"

"Yes. Eventually, I realized that I pitied him for that, and when he was arrested, I didn't hesitate to set him free. Nobody should get treated like that by their parents."

"Absolutely," Mr. Davidson agreed somberly.

Figuring that this was going quite well, Seto continued of his own free will: "I honestly think that that was one the best decisions I ever made. He means practically the world to my little brother; he has made him so happy…"

"And you too, undoubtedly."

Seto watched how the "grand gummi bear auction" was progressing, then glanced at the teacher and nodded. A journalist's face would certainly have shown a more or less apparent hope to hear a rapturous description of what changes and pleasures the blond had brought into his life, or perhaps even a eulogy. But Mr. Davidson seemed to be satisfied with the simple nod; he smiled and replied:

"I'm happy for you. I know that it won't always be easy for you, but I hope that you can still go your own way."

The look on the man's face made it clear that those words were sincere, and that raised a smile on Seto's face. "Thank you."

"Just being honest. Now… I think we should be on our way."

Mr. Davidson sauntered over to the others to spread the word, and soon they boarded the bus again.

"Hey Kaiba, what were you talking about with Mr. Davidson?" Tristan asked.

"Just a little private discussion, Taylor. All is good," Seto told him.

The gang agreed to play a few more rounds of Categories, and it was Seto's turn to recite the alphabet.

"Joey, you say stop," Ryou instructed.

"Don't give us some weird letter like 'w' or something," Marik warned.

"You'll get whatever you get," Seto argued, then concentrated on the letters.

"…Stop!" Joey said, hoping to get an easy one this time.

Seto uttered a theatrical sigh. "You might have wanted the 'w' anyway; it's a 'q'," he announced. (6)

"Great, just great!" Tristan groaned.

"Nice going, Joey!" Tea huffed.

"Aw, crap…" the blond whined and desperately tried to think up something with 'q'.

There was a long interlude of silence as they tried to complete the categories. But after a considerably longer while than with any other letter, Malik gave up.

"I'm lost. What about you guys? Does anyone **have** anything?"

"I've got quark in the food category," Tea spoke up. A few of the others groaned, wondering why they hadn't thought of that.

"What about Quidditch as a sport?" Yugi asked. (7)

"I thought that's just a fantasy thing!" Malik remarked.

"It is, but because this is so difficult, I think he should get a point anyway," Ryou said.

"Whatever…"

Yugi happily noted the point for that.

"Quebec is a city, isn't it?" Tristan asked hesitantly.

"Correct. One point for me and one for you," Seto confirmed.

"Is there an animal that starts with that blasted letter?" Joey wondered exasperatedly, fiddling with his pen as he thought about it.

"Mr. Davidson!" Ryou called.

"Is there a problem?" their teacher asked.

"Sort of… What can you think of that starts with the letter q?"

"Q?!" the young man repeated, then rested his lower arms on the lean of a chair and pursed his lips thoughtfully. "Q… q… hmm…" Everyone was silent as they watched him. Finally, he said: "Well, there's Quaker oats… ah yes, and quinces…"

A few people cursed, and others sighed.

"And what about an animal?" Joey repeated his former question.

"I know there **is** one, I just can't put my finger on it," Seto muttered.

Mr. Davidson thought about that, and just when he thought that it was pointless, he found an answer. "A quail!"

"That's it!" Seto ran a hand through his hair in obvious frustration. "I can't believe I couldn't think of that…!"

"That's a tough letter, so you don't have to be upset."

They discussed that with him a little longer, but eventually decided that trying to think up something out of thin air would only give them a headache. Bakura suggested that Seto should look those things up on the laptop, and the latter pointed out that he had actually brought it along for **working** purposes, though he might do the other thing sometime later.

The rest of the trip was spent in various ways: spacing out while listening to music, making out, talking etc. When they were almost there, Seto sat down in an unoccupied seat in front of Joey and Tristan, who were eagerly discussing what to do once they got there. Both of them fell silent, however, when they saw the look on the brunet's face: he was looking very happy – overjoyed, in fact.

"What gives, Kaiba? I can't remember ever seeing you so… happy," Tristan remarked, raising an eyebrow.

"I've just finished playing War with Yami. And I **won**," Seto explained.

"But I thought –" Tristan began, about to say that he had believed that Duel Monsters was all that mattered between them, but Joey elbowed him in the ribs so he'd keep that for himself, and exclaimed:

"Hey, that's great! Congrats, I'd say!"

"Gosh, I never would've guessed to see Seto Kaiba get so excited over a win… and what about Duel Monsters?" Tristan asked anyhow.

"Don't think that I've dropped my ambitions concerning that," Seto replied, shaking his head, "But right now I'm just glad to have won – or am I not allowed to be glad?" he asked challengingly.

"Geez, that's not what I said!" Tristan huffed, rolling his eyes.

"Cut it out, it's ridiculous to fight about that!" Joey interrupted.

"Yeah, man, sorry about that. Listen, Kaiba, when we get there, we'll go put the stuff in the room, and then we'll go get the skis, okay? Make the most of the day," Tristan suggested.

"So be it," Seto answered without hesitation.

Tristan stared, not having expected such a quick response that was affirmative, too, and Joey laughed because his friend was looking like a goldfish.

"Guess that was too much for Taylor to handle, wasn't it?" Seto asked with a smirk.

"He'll be back in no time," Joey grinned and was unable to say anything more because Seto proceeded to kiss him passionately.

Yami sat down next to Yugi again and couldn't help but smile as he watched Seto. The smaller teen beside him looked up from the little drawing he was working on and noticed the look on the Pharaoh's face.

"What are you so happy about, Yami?"

"I've just finished playing War with Kaiba; he won."

Yugi looked over to where Seto was still kissing Joey. Even so, one could tell that the CEO wasn't doing that for nothing. "I guess that victory means more to him that one would think."

"And someday, he will achieve that in Duel Monsters as well," Yami added seriously.

"I can only imagine how he'd react when that happens," Yugi sighed amusedly. Yami only chuckled in response, then decided to simply watch as his Hikari continued to draw.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

And then they were there. After more than eight hours of driving time (the break at the rest stop included), they had finally arrived at Ski Beech. Hardly anybody was able to conceal their excitement when they got off the bus, yet they managed to stand still long enough to listen to Mr. Davidson's fairly short speech about manners:

"I trust that you all will behave decently…" (eager nods from the students), "When you go do whatever you chose to, please make sure that you could contact one of your classmates or me in case of an emergency." He handed Yugi a handful of slips of paper, on each of which his cell phone number was written on. "For the sake of the other guests – and your own, depending on your day – the lights should be out by ten, including no more talking." A series of pleading moans could be heard from the class, and he discovered that he was too kind to ignore that. "Alright… eleven, but that's final." Everyone cheered, and he grinned. "Okay then, that will be all. You can get your tickets at the reception. Run along now."

The reception desk was soon surrounded by the students, and the two women who were on shift did their best to help them as quickly as possible. Keys and tickets had to be handed out and directions to the rooms were given. Groups of five detached themselves from the main cluster, and the two receptionists heaved a small sigh of relief when their work was done for the moment.

"That bed's mine!" Bakura declared as soon as the door to their room was opened, and he tossed his bag on it to officially claim it as his own. He went right after it, and once he had sat down – or rather: **jumped** – on the bed, he looked around. "Pretty spiffy…"

"Not bad, not bad at all," Tristan said, impressed, as he and the others entered as well.

"Hey, these beds are quite comfortable!" Joey stretched out on his, beaming at the ceiling.

Tristan claimed the one at the window, and that left Seto and Ryou with no doubt with what beds to choose, so in the end Ryou and Bakura were on one side of the room, Seto and Joey were on the other side, and Tristan was right beneath the window.

"I think I could jump across to Blondie's bed," Bakura muttered as he estimated the distance.

"Bakura, how old are you?" Ryou asked exasperatedly.

"3000 years," his darker half answered smugly.

"When will you start acting your age?"

"What, sit around like an old geezer, babble nonsense and needing somebody to wheel me around? No way!" Bakura laughed.

"Now that we've amused ourselves by imaging Bakura as an old man, how about if we go have fun now?" Tristan interjected, standing up.

"Oh yeah! Let's go!" Joey agreed and hurried to go put on his snowsuit and jacket. Tristan grinned at Seto as he proceeded to do the same, and the brunet shot him a semi-glare that dared him to do anything that would let him make a fool of himself…

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Roughly thirty minutes later, Seto decided that he would really need the rest tonight. They had gone to the rental shop nearby, the sales assistant had helped them choose skis that had the proper length, and after they had found ski boots too, Seto and Joey were about to have their first ski lesson.

Tristan had already gotten an opportunity to laugh when he saw the scowl on Seto's face upon walking the first few steps in the ski boots – not even Seto Kaiba could walk as he usually did anymore.

"Chill it, Kaiba! I know they're a pain to walk in, but mostly you'll be skiing anyway, so what the hell! C'mon, let's go to the lift!" When they were there, Tristan showed them how to stand properly on the skis and make sure that the bindings were secure and such.

"For now, just use the poles to pull yourself forward!" he advised them, demonstrating shortly, "Now, it's time to go up!" He went off to the lift, and Seto and Joey followed.

"Somehow, I feel exceedingly foolish," Seto remarked, wondering what he was looking like in the eyes of others.

"You think so? I don't think about that – I'm having fun already!" Joey replied happily and pretended to overhear the quiet sigh of the other.

"We're getting onto **that**?!" Seto said as he watched the scurrying of other skiers as they got onto the chair lift.

"Hey, be happy it's a chair lift! You wouldn't want to go on a T-bar first," Tristan grinned. (8) Seto decided that he didn't even want to know what one of those devices looked like. "Just do what those other people do, and it should be fine," the other brunet continued.

When it was their turn, they managed to get on successfully in the first go.

"How far up will we go?" Joey asked, definitely feeling excited as they were being transported uphill.

"Not far. A blue slope is fine to start on."

"Blue slope?"

"Alias baby slope, you pick what sounds better."

"**Baby slope**?!" Seto repeated in disbelief.

"Hey, you're a beginner – but luckily it's never too late for that, eh, Kaiba?"

"…I hope no one recognizes me."

"Trust me; everyone's way too occupied with having fun to be on the lookout for you."

When the ride was almost over, he warned them to get out of the way as soon as possible – no matter how – and once more, they accomplished that without any falls. And then the lesson could really begin.

"Don't let your skis get crossed, or else you're practically destined to fall." A few rather painful memories went through his mind when he said that, but they passed by quickly. "We'll start with the Wedge technique, that's good for going slow or stopping. Make the tails of the skis point away from each other…" Again, he showed them first, then watched as they copied him.

"Man, I hope I don't end up doing the splits or something!"

"Just hold it like that, Joey. Let's go down a bit… shift your weight a bit to make a turn…"

Slowly but surely, they descended halfway like that, occasionally stopping in-between. A few times, Seto and Joey almost stood on each other's skis, though Tristan assured them that that was completely normal.

"I bet **you** don't ski like this. How do you do it?" Joey asked. He couldn't wait to go faster.

"I keep the skis parallel and make more narrow turns. You use your hips to make the movement." He demonstrated on the spot.

"Cool! Let's try –!"

"Joey, it would be better if you just do the rest like you've done so far, but merely try to make the turns a bit narrower. We'll go up again, and if you're up to it, we'll try the faster variation."

"I wanna see you do it! We'll come when you're at the bottom!"

"Fine…"

Seto looked around Joey, and they watched how Tristan skied down the slope like he was used to. He stopped close to the lift, whirling up a cloud of powdery snow.

"That's how I'd like to be able to stop too!" Joey marveled, "C'mon, Seto, let's go!"

"You're such an eager puppy…" Seto sighed as he began to follow the blond, who seemed to get the hang of it quite quickly and finished with a slight advance.

"We'll be on the red slopes in no time," Tristan praised them.

"It isn't so hard," Joey said.

"Yet," Seto interjected.

"Kaiba's right – let's see how you do when it becomes faster…"

A couple of minutes later, they were at the top of the slope again and practiced the essential movements to make the turns, getting advice from Tristan to keep the skis parallel and how to use the poles. The brunet went ahead a bit, and Joey always tried to follow immediately, while Seto generously took his time. By the time they had gone down halfway, both beginners had fallen once, but both times painless.

Tristan had forgotten to warn them of something, however, and Seto gained his first experience with that "something" when he was supposed to close up to Joey and Tristan, who were waiting a couple of turns further down. He was just about to go when an experienced skier came racing along and whizzed by so close that Seto jumped back, startled – and forgetting for a second that he was standing on skis. Suddenly, he felt himself sliding backwards…

"Holy smokes!" Tristan exclaimed when he saw that near-collision.

"Watch where you're going!" Joey yelled when the blamable skier zoomed by them in a straight line.

"Shit, Kaiba's in trouble! Wait here!" Tristan said hurriedly and pushed off.

Joey watched worriedly as Seto seemed to gain more and more speed as he unknowingly made his skis turn downwards – and now he was really about to go backwards! It was like a mini-miracle that he hadn't fallen yet.

"Kaiba, grab the pole!" he heard Tristan yell.

Right then, Seto didn't give a damn whether he looked scared or whatever; all he wanted was to stop. He reached out and seized the end of the pole. Tristan responded by putting his skis sideways in an attempt to brake.

"Don't let go! And try to turn the skis around, follow me!"

He allowed himself to go downhill again, if possible fast enough to get on one level with the other, but not too fast that his advice couldn't be taken. When he began to overtake Seto, the CEO tried to pull himself closer to the pole and felt like a miracle was happening as he started to turn sideways. In a matter of seconds, he was going straight forward again, still holding on to Tristan's pole.

"Turn right and brake!" he was instructed, and that was just what he did. A breathless sigh escaped his lips when he finally stopped and could let go of the pole.

"Gee, man, are you okay?" Tristan asked concernedly.

"Y-Yes… thanks, Taylor…" Seto prayed that his heart would stop racing.

"Seto! God, that was close!" Joey called as he came to a halt beside them (unknowingly making a good approach to the stop he desired to be able to make).

"Joey…"

"Thank heavens!" As he hugged Seto tightly, he felt that he was still quite in shock. "Tristan, you're a true friend!" he said gratefully.

"Goddamn slope terrorists!" Tristan growled, "Sorry that I didn't warn you… I just got carried away with the lesson…"

Seto mumbled something, and Joey drew back from the embrace.

"What was that?"

"I said: it wouldn't have made that much of a difference."

"Still, I'm sorry," Tristan repeated.

"Just forget it, Taylor. And… thank you again for… helping out."

"Anytime, dude. Um… I assume that you've had enough for today?"

"…Yes."

"That's okay. You made lots of progress, and we've still got lots of time."

"I think I'll go back. Joey, you can go up a few more times if you want – I'll get some work done," Seto told the blond.

A sigh. "Okay. Let's go down…"

Together, they skied down, and Seto returned to the hotel after Joey and Tristan both said: "See you soon…" In the end, the two of them spent almost two more hours on the slope – Joey fell a few more times or at least came close to that as he practiced the abrupt stopping maneuver.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Ryou and Bakura were already back when Joey and Tristan returned. The tomb robber was sitting tailor fashion on his bed and talking with Seto, who looked rather annoyed as he was typing on his laptop.

"…you won't give up just because of that, right?"

"No. I'm not a coward," Seto snorted.

"But then why did you go back right after that happened?"

"Because."

"Give him a break, Bakura. I remember something similar that happened to me – only that I wasn't as fortunate as Kaiba, and some jerk skied right into me," Tristan recalled with a headshake.

"But other than that, you had fun?" Ryou asked.

"You bet! I can't wait to get off the blue slopes!" Joey answered, "And you?"

"It was lots of fun!"

"You mean nobody got hurt?" Tristan muttered. Luckily for him, Bakura didn't quite catch that comment.

"Are you sure that you don't want a sled for yourself, Hikari?"

"It's not just about having a race – and for the moment, it's just fine for me and Malik."

Bakura shrugged. "Have it your way…" He glanced at the little clock Ryou had brought along. "Oh Ra, it's still so early… I'll go ask Marik if he'll come do something with me."

"Don't let me keep you," Ryou invited him, figuring that it was best if his Yami got rid of as much energy as possible every day so they could have a peaceful night.

"Mind if I come along?" Joey asked hopefully, "I'm all wound up too…"

"Not at all, Blondie. If you think you're up for a little war – free-for-all, of course."

"Anytime!"

"Count me in too! You guys coming as well?" Tristan asked the other two before he left.

"What do you think?" Seto simply retorted.

"…No."

"Precisely."

"And I don't want to overdo it," Ryou added, rubbing his nose a bit.

"Oh yeah, that's right. See ya later!"

When the door closed behind Joey's friend, Ryou decided that it was for the best to just leave Seto alone, so he unpacked his stuff and Bakura's. Then he decided to just read a book for a while…

Almost an hour later, it was really dark outside, and therefore the little war was over. The others returned, looking really disheveled and with damp hair, but content nonetheless. To their surprise, they found Ryou sitting next to Seto – playing chess on the laptop.

"Leave anyone alone with Ryou, and they succumb to his charms," Bakura smirked.

"Stop kidding yourself! I was done with my work, anyway," Seto snorted.

"There's nothing wrong with admitting to be friends with someone, you know," Tristan said.

Seto narrowed his eyes, but Ryou reacted quickly: "Just let him be; we don't want to cause bad blood on the very first day, do we?"

Bakura complied for the sake of not getting Ryou upset. He knelt on the bed behind him, looked at the board and suddenly interrupted the other boy's thoughts: "I'd move the horse."

Ryou groaned. When playing chess against Seto, every move had to be chosen carefully, though he had been warned that his winning chances were very, very small from the start. To make one careless move could already mean an imminent defeat… "That's not a horse, it's a knight."

"It **looks** like a horse."

"Chess terminology, Bakura… Oh no, now I forgot what I wanted to do!"

"Can **I** make your move?"

Ryou massaged his temples a bit. "Fine, go ahead."

Grinning insanely, Bakura reached around him… and faltered. "Where's the click-thingy… the mouse?" he corrected himself after a moment's consideration.

Seto raised his eyebrows. "You use the touchpad instead." He pointed at it.

Of course, Bakura wasn't familiar with that, so it took him a few tries until he managed to use it correctly (he cursed when he didn't get the desired results, and Seto hissed as he pitied his computer), but finally the knight's move was made. Joey peered over Seto's shoulder, and Tristan was smack in the middle. Ryou frowned when the CEO made his move much sooner than previously. This worry was realized by means of one word:

"Check."

"…Oops," Bakura commented. His lover sighed and tried to make the most of the situation. But a few turns later, it was over:

"Checkmate."

Ryou took it easy and waved Bakura's apology for messing up aside. Just then, Joey's stomach growled, and the blond blushed a little bit.

"Um… could we go have dinner now?"

The others laughed a bit.

"That's quite a good idea. I'll go tell the others," Ryou volunteered.

Seto shut down his laptop. "Let's go, puppy, before you'll starve."

"Can you blame me? Lunch was ages ago…"

Several minutes later, the whole gang got together and had dinner in the restaurant that was closest to the hotel. It seemed that everyone had had a good day, though especially Yami openly admitted that he was looking forward to some rest – ice-skating was tiring after a while. Because it had been an eventful day for them all, there indeed wasn't much noise after eleven pm, not even from Marik or Bakura (in the latter case mostly because of Ryou)…

* * *

(1) Coffee's always first... _-lol-_

(2) A risky strategy, but if it works out... I never try that, though, I can't keep track well enough of what has been played...

(3) Hehe, no doubt about it ;)

(4) Wheee, disco rice!! That's about the funniest synonym for an animal that I've ever heard of... I think that "maggot" actually even sounds gross...

(5) I must confess that it took me shamefully long to come up with certain things... but of course, it's always different when you're under (time) pressure, right?

(6) Try coming up with something in each category... that really makes you rack your brains! (I tested that on my own family, so I know it's hard.)

(7) Couldn't resist that... and of course I don't own anything related to Harry Potter...

(8) I hate those... once, my Dad and I were like bowling balls, we knocked three pairs behind us off the lîft... _-lmao at the memory-_

Reviews are appreciated... they're so motivating!


	24. Chapter 24

(I'm very sorry, but due to some unvoluntary changes I had to make to the format of the text, I must have somehow "deleted" this chapter's A/N and review responses... again, I'm very sorry...!

* * *

The little alarm clock went off at 8.30, and because they had gotten plenty of sleep and had a lot to look forward to, the process of getting up wasn't as torturing as it usually tended to be. After quickly hopping in the shower, they stopped by at the breakfast buffet that was provided by the hotel, and Seto intended to get his usual cup of coffee.

"Oh, shit!" he hissed when he found the coffee.

"What did you say that for? It's not even nine yet!" Joey remarked.

"I pass on the coffee…"

"Say what?!"

"…for now," Seto finished.

"…What? For now?" When the only explanation was a finger that was pointed accusingly at the coffee, he took a closer look. "It's Nescafe, what's the big deal?"

"I hate Nescafe," Seto said disgustedly, "It tastes terrible and is far too bitter…"

"Dad used to drink it… sometimes… a long time ago…" Joey silenced and shook his head._ 'No… don't think about him now!'_

"So, ready for some more action?" Tristan's voice suddenly interrupted his thoughts, and a bun appeared right in front of his nose. Thankful for the distraction, Joey grinned at his friend and took the offered bread.

"Kaiba, you look kinda grumpy… what's up?"

"Nescafe's up."

Tristan (who wasn't a big coffee fan) stifled a laugh and said instead: "You won't be a sourpuss all day just because of that, will you?"

"What would you do if **your** routine would get all… fucked up?"

"Whoa, that's strong language from you…! Joey, perhaps we should see to it that Kaiba gets some coffee first before he'll end up showing caffeine-withdrawal-symptoms halfway down the slope." The CEO growled at him for that joke, but Tristan boldly clapped him on the shoulder. "Easy there, Kaiba, there's a little restaurant close to the lift – we'll go there first, you get your coffee, and when you're all happy again, it's off to the slopes for us!"

Seto brushed the other boy's hand off his shoulder, but the slightly irritated look on his face ebbed away. "That's… that would be good."

"I know. Let's go! See ya later!" Tristan called to Ryou and Bakura before setting off.

"Burying the hatchet, aren't you?" Joey asked happily as they followed. He couldn't wait to tell Mokuba…

"…I guess."

Knowing that he wouldn't get to hear much more from him about that issue, Joey simply grabbed Seto's hand and held it tightly. As promised, they stopped by at the little restaurant for the desired coffee.

"So, is Your Majesty satisfied now?" Tristan asked teasingly as he watched Seto drink.

"Knock it off, Taylor – you shouldn't make fun of people just because their taste in coffee or whatever is rather sophisticated."

"He was only joking, Seto," Joey said.

"Yeah; that resulted from your lifestyle, I guess… always staying in luxurious hotels and such…"

Seto shrugged as if saying 'Yes; so?' and drained the cup, feeling better and putting his frustration because of the Nescafe behind him. Then they could finally proceed to the slopes, where Seto did his best to catch up with Joey, who already tended to go so fast that Tristan was surprised that he didn't actually fall so much (though sometimes getting dangerously close to that).

When it was almost midday, Tristan announced that they could proceed to the red slopes now.

"You should be able to handle them just fine now." He took the little map of the slopes out of his pocket and held it under their noses. "So, which one do you want?"

"The nearest one!" Joey answered immediately.

"Does it matter?" Seto asked.

"No, not really…"

A few minutes later, when they had reached the lift that would take them up the nearest slope, Tristan said slowly: "…I officially take back what I said before."

"Because of…?" Joey asked and pointed.

"Yep," Tristan nodded, "Behold: the T-bar! You either love it or hate it!"

Seto and Joey regarded the lift: the things looked like anchors and were transporting two people at once (mostly; some also went alone) uphill. And as far as they could tell, it went pretty steep upwards…

"Doesn't that hurt?" Joey asked, noticing exactly **where** the "anchors" were supporting the skiers.

"Not at first, no. But if they stop the lift, then that could very well be after a while, accidents happen… and your fingers start to freeze…" Tristan replied.

"That looks very unsafe," Seto remarked, "Do we **have** to use that thing?!"

"No, we could also take the gondola."

"The gondola it is, then."

"That will take us further up, though."

"I gladly accept that."

"Me too. I don't think I want to go on one of those quite yet…" Joey agreed, definitely giving the lift a mistrusting glance.

"I don't blame you. I used to actually like them, but now… let's stay that I can **stand** them."

"Why? What happened?" Joey asked as they went past the T-bar towards the gondola station.

"I was going up with my dad, and then… somehow… we fell. And boy, it wasn't pretty… The folks coming up behind us almost fell too, but we got out of the way in time. And I managed to lose one of my skis…" Tristan looked rather amused by the memory. "Ah yes, we spent a long time hunting for it in the deep snow after someone claimed to have seen a lone ski gliding downhill…"

"And when did that happen?" Seto asked.

"A couple of years ago. Eh, perhaps it was a mistake to go with dad… I mean, you should see to it that the one you're going with is more or less the same height. But hey, maybe you guys will give it a shot anyway sometime this week!" he suggested cheerfully as they loaded their skis into the carrier compartments at the side of the gondola.

"…Maybe," the other two replied elusively.

They all enjoyed the gondola ride – it helped that it was a beautiful day, for the view was amazing. Seto and Joey got to hear a few more "skiing adventures" of the Taylor family, and the blond was really happy to see that Seto and Tristan got along much better now… When they had reached the top, the "instructor" studied the map.

"Well, this should be a nice, long downhill run… and it'll eventually merge with the one of the sledders," he said, implying a warning.

"Sled terrorists?" Joey presumed.

"Yeah; one of them might even be Bakura," Tristan sighed. He could clearly picture the tomb robber going downhill as if the place were an obstacle course – and the narrower the call, the better…

They began the descent, and quite soon they stopped at a long, straight stretch. On both sides, it went 90 degrees downhill where the cracks were – luckily, there were safety nets on both sides of the stretch.

"Hey Kaiba, are you seeing what I'm seeing?" Tristan asked slyly.

Instead of answering, Seto narrowed his eyes.

"Wow, a crevasse, right? This is so cool!" Joey laughed when he remembered what meaning this had for his two friends. "With those nets, you couldn't possibly ski into it, Seto!"

"Thank heavens for that."

"Well, if there's a place to go straight downhill and fast, this is it," Tristan said.

"What are we waiting for? Let's go!" Before anyone could reply, Joey pushed off and immediately stooped to pick up more speed even faster.

"Wait up, man!" Tristan called and followed right away.

Seto watched them both for a moment, then shook his head. He would stay true to his intention of coming home in one piece, so when he followed, he didn't really aim to go as fast as he could – though he did enjoy the feeling of the wind on his face… The others had already vanished beyond an upcoming corner, and two turns later, he discovered that they had met up with someone; but it wasn't Bakura, Ryou or one of the Egyptians…

Using the technique Tristan had showed him, Joey went around the next two corners at full speed. Hell, as far as he was concerned, this was the only way to ski! Unfortunately, something was in his way and made his speeding come to an abrupt end: he crashed with two people who were – stupidly enough – standing in the middle of the way, bickering. Three surprised and startled yelps sounded out as they went sprawling.

"Hey, what the hell –?!" one of the two others began, but grunted in pain when Tristan came rushing around the corner as well, being just as unable to avoid the trio of fallen ones; a second later, he had joined them.

"Ow… sorry…" Joey started to say as he freed himself from the tangle of bodies.

"Sorry?! You bloody ignoramus… Wait a moment: **Wheeler**?!"

"Huh?" the blond asked and took a closer look at the two strangers. But they weren't strangers at all. One of them had blue-green hair and yellow glasses, and the other had a patch of lilac hair that hung wildly in his face from where it poked out of the red hat he wore.

"I don't believe it!" Tristan had recognized them as well by now. "What are you two doing here?!"

"We could ask you the same thing!"

"And what the hell is up with you, crashing into us like that?"

Joey opened his mouth to give an answer when a voice interrupted him: "I presume that it's a good thing that I didn't go as fast as you did… Joey, are you okay? And you, Taylor?"

Seto had stopped right in front of the collision scene and gingerly poked Joey and Tristan with his ski poles.

"I think so…" Joey replied slowly and grabbed the brunet's hand that was offered to him. One of his skis had come off, but fortunately, it wasn't buried beneath the others, so he could clip it on right away again. Tristan used his poles to prop himself up, then rose to his full height again.

"You two really are idiots! You should know better than to stand in the middle of the way!" he growled at the other two.

"You know them?" Seto asked.

"Yeah," Joey snorted, "It's Bug Boy and Freakosaurus."

"Hey, take that back!"

"Yeah, you loser! And besides, I'm **not** a Freakosaurus! That doesn't even exist!"

"Now it does!" Tristan snickered while Joey fumed over being called a loser.

Seto frowned at the other boys. "Who are you?"

"You don't know who we are, Seto Kaiba?!" the one with glasses asked, looking appalled.

"No. Should I?" the CEO asked, though he didn't sound interested at all.

"Of course! We're regional champions in Duel Monsters! I'm Weevil Underwood!"

"And I'm Rex Raptor!"

"You're duelists? Well, you can't be very good, otherwise I would know you," Seto retorted.

It was beyond apparent that this lack of impression made the other two bristle with frustration. Joey rolled his eyes.

"What the heck are you doing here?"

"We are on vacation," Weevil answered waspishly.

"So are we. Why Fortune let us bump into you guys is a mystery to me…" Tristan remarked.

"D'you think that **we** were keen on running into **you**, you unicorn-wannabe?"

"Oh, shut up! Aren't you lonely, since your bug friends are missing in this weather? No ants to play tea party with?" Tristan snarled.

"Watch it!" the shorter teen hissed angrily.

Meanwhile, Rex had taken notice of how Seto had once more asked Joey whether he was alright. Leaving his friend to argue with Tristan, he suddenly said: "So, the media's telling the truth, then?"

"Unless Davis claimed that we're married or something, yes," Seto answered matter-of-factly.

"Oh…"

"If you've got a problem with it, keep it to yourself."

Rex shook his head and replied: "It's not a problem. I'm a bit surprised, that's all. Somehow, I had just pictured you to be… well, **straight**. But that's just me."

Seto just shrugged slightly, and Joey was about to say that Rex was quite okay when the argument in the background reached its peak:

"That does it! I challenge you to a race! If I win, you'll take back everything and show me at least one ounce of respect!"

"Oh yeah? And if **I** win, you'll officially be dubbed 'Bug Boy'!"

"Hmpf! Deal!"

"You're on!"

"Rex, you do the same against Wheeler!"

"What?! I don't want to be called 'Freakosaurus' forever!"

"Don't worry, there's no way we could lose!"

Tristan rounded on Joey. "C'mon, man, these guys will be a piece of cake!" When the blond just stared at him, he added: "Then you can put your speed to the test…"

"All this trouble over those nicknames we heard before?" Seto could barely believe this.

"Yeah! Look, Kaiba, there are competitions that aren't about big bucks or something! It's kinda like fun…"

"Indeed, especially when I'll beat you!" Weevil interjected.

"No way!" Tristan argued.

Rex had obviously decided to join the game as well, for he asked Joey: "So, do you accept as well, Wheeler? Or are you chicken?"

Just like when Bakura had taunted him like that, Joey was determined to prove that he wasn't chicken – that remark had the same effect on him as when someone claimed that Seto wasn't up for a challenge – so he answered without hesitation:

"Hell no! I'll beat you by a mile!"

"Ha! We'll see about that!"

"And when is this spectacle supposed to take place?" Seto inquired, somehow glad that he had been left out of this.

"Let's say… Friday afternoon. This run, from top to bottom."

"You could be the referee," Tristan suggested to Seto.

"What gives you the idea that I'd do that?"

"Maybe because you're our friend, you know."

Seto looked rather astonished at that statement. Before he could make a comment, though, Weevil butted in:

"So, are you in on it?"

The brunet cast him a warning glance. "Fine, but only if this will be held fairly. No cheating."

"One might not think so when he sees us, but we **are** fair," Rex assured him.

Joey and Tristan didn't look too convinced, but for once they didn't say so. Weevil and Rex seemed to consider the matter closed for now, for they nodded briefly, then turned away and continued the descent. Shortly before the next corner, they strayed off the groomed ski run so they could take a "shortcut" through the thick wood.

"To make such a fuss about nicknames… honestly…" Seto muttered, shaking his head a bit.

"Speaking of which: they were brilliant, Joey. Quick thinking," Tristan complimented his friend, showing him thumbs-up.

"The same goes for you concerning the tea party comment," Joey snickered before responding to what Seto had just said: "Eh, **they're** the ones making all the rhubarb. I bet that race will be kinda fun."

"Seems to me like you've got a need for speed, puppy."

"That's right!"

"Let's make use of that and go on before we cause the same trouble those two jerks did," Tristan suggested. The others agreed, and they too continued the descent.

Tristan had been right: it really was a very nice run with plenty of opportunities to go fast, but also to take it easy. Fortunately, the "sled terrorists" weren't that much of a problem – at least, no **intentional** accidents happened…

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Several hours later, they were once again going down the same run on which they had met Weevil and Rex earlier on, intending to go back to the hotel after this.

"So, Kaiba, how d'you like it, now that we've had the first full day?" Tristan asked on a short stretch during which they were close enough to have a small talk.

"At the risk of having the same effect on you like back on the bus, I'd say that I really am enjoying this very much. And I admit that Joey was right when he said that I could trust you and that you wouldn't give me…" He paused briefly. "…doubtful directions, for instance."

"Told ya I wouldn't dream of it," Tristan grinned.

"So you admit that this is better than if we'd have been taught by an ordinary guy?" Joey asked.

"That I cannot say; after all, we don't how it would have turned out in that case." Before the blond could protest, though, Seto added: "Then again, you're probably right, for I doubt that a stranger would have graced us with excerpts from his skiing history."

"Thank heavens you're friends now, I almost thought –"

"If you plan to give me a lecture on friendship, I might just discover any way to use these poles," Seto threatened him playfully.

Joey laughed heartily. "No way, that's Tea's job!"

"Thank God," Seto and Tristan replied in unison.

Speaking of which… "Oh my God, Bakura, watch out!"

"Lean over, Hikari, lean over!"

The three skiers turned their heads to see a toboggan pass them. Bakura was the driver, and Ryou clung to him, looking like a cross between thrilled and afraid. Bakura was leaning forward a bit and looked as if he was having the time of his life.

"Hey, even if he's alone, Ryou's faster than you guys!" the spirit called to them when they had passed.

"Apparently, that's saying something," Seto concluded.

"If you ask me, he's making fun of us! Let's show him what we've got!" Joey declared.

"You'll have to hurry!"

"See you at the bottom!"

In that moment, Malik and Marik passed as well (on separate sleds) and had obviously heard that last bit. Joey and Tristan switched into racing-mode to close up, and this time Seto did the same – the last thing he wanted was to give Bakura any reason to think that he was a sissy in any way.

Especially because of the last part, which was steep and allowed them to gather lots of speed, it was a close call, and they all arrived at the bottom of the hill fairly close together.

"I knew that would make you snap out of your little coffee klatch," Bakura snickered when everyone had come to a stop.

"Why are you so sure that it was coffee klatch?" Ryou asked.

"What else would it be? Top-priority conversations aren't held in the middle of a run," Bakura argued.

"Can we go once more?" Malik asked eagerly.

"I'm in!" Marik announced instantly.

"Surely you'd be up for one last time, Hikari?" Bakura purred, putting an arm around Ryou.

"Am I?" Ryou wondered, talking to himself at that point, then gave a rather coy smile. "Alright, one more time."

"What about you guys?" Marik asked the skiers.

"We had actually planned to go back after this… but what the heck, of course I'll go again!" Tristan agreed.

"Me too! This time, you won't be able to pass us like you did before!" Joey vowed.

Seto figured that Joey might be disappointed if he'd back out earlier again (like he had done yesterday), so he decided to go up the hill another time too.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

That last run was more peaceful than one would have guessed it to be, considering that Marik and Bakura were part of the group, but the two Yamis made it clear that next time, it would be different. On the way up, they had tried to convince their lighter halves to help make that happen.

"Throw snowballs or something! You know, I could steer the sled close enough to the edge of the run that you could grab the snow –"

"No, that's not fair! Why would I go do that to someone who can't return the fire in the same fashion?" Ryou frowned a bit at Bakura.

"He's right; we don't have a free hand, not to mention a whole extra set of hands," Joey pointed out.

Bakura rolled his eyes. "Who said that I plan to use that strategy on **you**? I was talking about Malik and Marik, of course!"

"You think –" Ryou started, but Bakura cut him short:

"I don't **think**, Hikari, I **know** that they're most probably planning the very same thing!"

He was quite right: in the other gondola, Tristan was having a similar conversation with Marik and Malik, who had barely hesitated at all in supporting his Yami's idea.

"You guys really are birds of a feather," he told them.

"Great minds think alike," Marik smirked. Tristan grinned as he imagined what Seto would say in reply to that statement – probably something among the lines of replacing the "great" with an adjective like "lunatic" or "crazy"; to the brunet, that was just as normal as calling Joey "Blondie" was for Bakura.

Even without the mini-war between the two sledding parties, the run was lots of fun, and when they were at the bottom of the hill again (much to everyone's regret, but now it was getting dark), they agreed to go downhill together more often.

Back in the hotel room, Bakura asked Ryou to get the deck of cards. When he was asked why, he simply replied: "Kaiba and I have a score to settle."

"You're still fretting over that?" the CEO wondered as they all sat down on Ryou and Bakura's beds.

"Not exactly fretting; I just want to finish that. You've still got the score, right, Ryou?"

"Yes, but what about –"

Once again, it seemed as if Bakura had read his thoughts in advance: "They said they'd go to the ice rink – Marik mentioned that perhaps he'd be lucky enough to see the Pharaoh fall. It's rather metaphoric, but what the heck," he explained with a wicked grin.

"And if that doesn't happen, he'd be disappointed," Joey concluded.

Bakura made a waving gesture with his hand. "It'll happen for sure. After all, he's the King of **Games**, not the King of **Ice**."

"That's Kaiba's title," Tristan pointed out.

"I beg to differ, Tristan; unless I'm greatly mistaken, I've overheard the fangirls saying that he's the **Prince** of Ice, not the King," Ryou politely interjected.

"If you've finished discussing my title of nobility, perhaps we could get started," Seto interrupted sarcastically.

"Your wish is our command," Tristan joked. Seto quickly countered:

"Don't say that again, or I might start getting used to it."

"Well, there's something that shouldn't happen," Bakura remarked as he passed three cards to Seto, who did the same to Joey (and then on to Tristan and back to the tomb robber).

"Aw, Seto, I thought you **liked** me! What's this?!" Joey groaned as he looked at the cards he had received.

"Make the most of it, puppy. And don't be mistaken: I **do** like you," Seto advised him with a wink. This made Joey grin.

A couple of rounds later, they had actually started a new game after the 100-points-limit was reached, but truth to be told, they were all having too much fun to quit quite yet. Tristan claimed that they could easily rely on Joey's stomach to remind them when it was time to stop in order to get some dinner. In the middle of a round, Seto's cell phone suddenly started to ring.

"I should go answer that…" He put his cards face-down on the bed and glared at Bakura. "Don't even **think** about peeking."

"The ideas he gets…" Ryou's darker half muttered, but everyone in the room knew that Seto's distrust was rather understandable. Fortunately, three pairs of observant eyes were too many that Bakura would take the risk of trying anyway.

Seto briefly looked at the caller ID, then said: "Hello Mokuba."

_"Hi big brother! How's it going?"_

"Believe it or not, but right now, we're just… hanging around."

_"Aha! So, is it boring, as you always thought it would be, or are you actually enjoying yourself?"_ Mokuba sounded delighted.

"The second option… hang on a moment," Seto told him when he saw how Bakura started to drum his fingers on his temporarily abandoned cards. "Listen, Ryou, you take over for me until I'm done. But don't mess my score up too much!"

"Sure, Kaiba!" the white-haired teen agreed cheerfully and picked up the cards.

_"Sounds like you're actually becoming sociable, Seto."_ Back in Domino, Mokuba was grinning broadly.

"It's not like I have any other choice – but before you get the idea of reprimanding me, keep in mind that I could be working right now without making any effort to interact with others."

_"As long as you don't go by the means of 'all work and no play', I'm happy,"_ Mokuba assured him before asking eagerly: _"So, do you like skiing?"_

Seto paused briefly (this was already enough to get Mokuba worried), then answered: "It's better than I thought it would be."

His brother knew that this meant that he liked it, possibly even liked it very much. _"So you trusted Tristan, I guess, right?"_

"…Yes. Some idiot almost ran into me, and Taylor helped me out."

_"See, Seto? Giving people a chance is a good thing!"_

The elder Kaiba simply shrugged, for he knew that the main reason he was doing that was because of Joey. "I give you credit for these particular cases, Mokuba. Now, how have **you** been doing?"

_"Fine, usually. I've been asked quite a bunch of questions about you and Joey at school, though."_

Seto frowned a bit. "Really? But you're not being picked on, right?"

_"No, no. They just ask me things their older sisters asked – or sometimes, their older brothers."_

The CEO thought that it was a good thing that Mokuba only had to deal with the younger siblings of people who wanted to know about everything he did and said; the real fangirls would probably molest him to death when asking him all sorts of questions or demanding why he, Seto, wasn't going out with one of **them** instead.

_"By the way: someone asked me if you get cooties from kissing Joey."_

"…What?"

_"I know, that's a silly question. I didn't bother to answer it."_

Seto barely heard this as he wondered what his little brother was talking about (of course, because he had been home-schooled, he had never known about this whole "cooties" thing).

_"…Seto?"_ Mokuba asked when he heard nothing from the elder.

"Why would Joey have those… cooties?"

"Say what?!" the blond yelped, hearing that. Bakura and Tristan doubled over with laughter, and Ryou tried to stop himself from doing the same. Joey put down his cards and said with a minor pout: "Boys don't have cooties."

Seto stifled a laugh, amused by the other's displeasure. "Mokuba, perhaps you should have a little discussion about that with Joey…"

_"Yeah, okay!"_

Seto beckoned Joey over. "Give the phone back to me when you're done, okay, puppy?"

"Sure."

"Good boy."

"Seto…" Joey growled, stressing the name.

"Sorry, I couldn't resist," the brunet whispered and tousled the blond hair shortly before going back to Bakura's bed, from where he smirked at the playful way his boyfriend stuck his tongue out at him before shifting his attention to the caller:

"What's all this about me having cooties, Mokuba?"

_"Don't worry, Joey, I defended you!"_

"Thanks. Geez, you'd think that you'd be over that by now…"

_"**I**__ am!"_

"I know you are."

Mokuba giggled. _"You're having a good time too, right?"_

"You bet. Friday's gonna be a big day for me…"

While he launched into an explanation, Bakura and Tristan finally got a hold of themselves again and could resume playing. Seto took over Joey's hand in order not to offer any advantage to Ryou, who now knew what cards he had previously had, after all. A couple of minutes later, Joey ended his part of the call before letting Seto finish it off and give his brother's regards to the others as well. It wasn't too much longer before Joey's stomach made Tristan's prediction come true as it announced that it was high time for dinner…

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

"Hey Yug', you wouldn't believe who we ran into today!" Joey said as the gang headed for the game room of the hotel after dinner.

"Why, who was it?"

"Weevil and Rex."

The short teen raised his eyebrows with surprise. "What are they doing here?"

"Apparently, they're on vacation too."

"Oh. So, how are they?"

"Same idiots as always. And me and Tristan, we got ourselves a challenge. A race on Friday."

"Why?" Joey briefly explained the incident of the nicknames, and Yugi laughed. "Well, you don't seem to be unhappy about it."

"You're right. I bet it'll be fun. I can't wait to call them 'Bug Boy' and 'Freakosaurus' whenever I want to," Joey replied gleefully.

The game room offered enough things to do, much to their delight. Tristan and Malik settled for a game of darts; Yugi, Yami, Tea and Ryou decided to play some pool, and Marik and Bakura teamed up against Joey and Seto after convincing the latter to participate in some table soccer. Of course, the main argument was about who got to play in the attack mode and who in the defense mode.

"Let's flip a coin!" Marik suggested.

"Do you have one?" Bakura asked.

"Um… no. You?"

"Negative. How about Rock, Paper, Scissors? Whoever gets three points first can attack."

"Deal!"

They put a hand behind their backs and chanted together: "Rock… Paper… Scissors!"

"Ha! Rock beats Scissors!" Marik jeered.

"Shit!" Bakura hissed, then they did it again.

"What do you wanna be?" Joey asked Seto in the meantime.

"I don't really care."

"You haven't played this before, right?"

"…No."

Joey sighed. "There's so much you need to catch up with… Alright, I'll be at the front."

"Fine."

"Rock… Paper… Scissors! Ha! Paper beats Rock! I'm at the front!" Bakura cheered.

"You're just lucky," Marik argued and cuffed his shoulder. Smirking triumphantly, Bakura turned to the other two.

"Let's see how well you handle yourself in a game where you can't calculate," he said to Seto. The CEO just motioned to him to get it started.

Marik was just about to grab one of those little soccer balls when he noticed something and asked rather sheepishly: "Does anybody have a quarter?"

"Sheesh, you really have to pay for **everything**, don't you?" Bakura asked exasperatedly, "Maybe I can rig this…"

"Why go to so much trouble?" Seto drawled and tossed Marik the needed quarter.

"And what would you have done if you hadn't had any cash with you, incredible as that would be?" Bakura sneered.

"Simple: I'd go back to the room and get some from my wallet."

"Hmpf! Smartypants…" the spirit muttered, to which Joey could barely stifle an outburst of laughter.

"Get ready to lose!" Marik announced as the little balls finally were accessible and he popped the first one through the hole.

Several wild minutes later, Joey and Seto were leading by one goal. Bakura and Marik refused to believe that perhaps that was because they tended to twirl the handles instead of merely flicking them.

"You know, it's not the **table's** fault that you're behind," Ryou pointed out while he waited for Yami to take a shot.

"Are you saying that we play bad, Hikari?" Bakura growled.

"No; maybe you should try to play like Joey and Kaiba do, though."

"Can't you just put the guy a little more to the right?" the tomb robber hissed, frustrated because Seto's goalie was blocking far too many shots for his liking.

"You wish!"

The table could count on Ryou's pity as the game went on barely any less roughly than before. In the end, Bakura and Marik managed to achieve a victory by one goal.

"Yeah, man! We rock!" they cheered and gave each other high-fives. Joey grinned at the weird little victory dance the two were doing, then asked Seto:

"So, what d'you wanna do now?"

"It's been fun, but I should go get some work done."

"Oh. …Later, then," Joey said quietly and hugged him shortly.

"I suppose you'll spend some more time with your friends…"

"Yeah. Maybe I'll go for the darts or something."

The brunet smiled. "Show them who's running the show, puppy."

"'Kay."

Seto nodded, then turned around and went back to the room. Noticing that his friend was alone now, Tristan waved at the blond, who joined him and Malik. It wasn't long before Tea asked Ryou something concerning Bakura and Marik while she put some more chalk on the end of her stick:

"Is it just me, or are they more… let's say, energetic than they usually are?"

"I wish it were just you, Tea," Ryou answered with a wary glance at his Yami, "I've got to come up with a new strategy of what to do with him in the evening. If it goes on like this, we won't get much sleep tonight – and I promised Kaiba that that wouldn't happen."

"Sometimes I really feel for you," the girl sighed.

Ryou shrugged. "Oh well… it may not always be easy, but in the end, he always makes up for it."

Tea giggled as she was quite able to picture exactly what Ryou meant by that.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Quite a while later, Seto went over the work he had done. Although it was only the second evening of their stay here in Ski Beech, he admitted to be rather surprised at how good he managed to coordinate 'work and play', as Mokuba called it. The fact that people weren't constantly begging him to let work be for a while was certainly helping as well. He would definitely need to show Joey that he appreciated this…

Just then, the door to the room clicked open, and Bakura darted inside. Ryou followed and was looking rather irritated while Joey and Tristan were obviously busy with calming the white-haired boy down.

"…it shouldn't have happened."

"But what will we do about it? We can't just leave it like that! Remember, we're supposed to **behave**!"

"Hey, you don't really think that it's the first time that something like that happened, do you?"

"I don't know," Ryou sighed and sat down.

"Sounds like I missed something," Seto remarked and shut down his laptop.

"Nothing special; Ryou's just overreacting," Bakura grumbled.

"No, I'm not!"

"Yes, you are! Marik pushed me –"

"But you **had** to throw so hard!" Ryou retorted angrily and jumped off his bed again, "That does it! I'm going to the reception! I can't let this be!"

When the door had closed behind him, there was a moment of silence in the room. Bakura broke it with a snort:

"For crying out loud, if I had **wanted** that to happen, I would have done it from the start!"

"What happened?" Seto asked. He had never seen Ryou so upset before.

Bakura just scowled and glared at the ceiling, so it was up to Joey and Tristan to explain: "Bakura, Malik and Marik were playing a game of darts and… well, things got out of hand."

"Yeah, they started betting who could shoot the target from various angles… even from behind the pool table once…"

"Then some of the darts missed the target – they went straight into the wall. And I mean **into**, they had to be pulled out again. And now Ryou's upset because of the holes," Joey finished.

"And if you need any explanation to why **I'm** upset, guess where my pillow will be within a second or two," Bakura threatened.

"I can do the math, thank you very much," Seto retorted.

"I just hope he won't be angry for the rest of the bloody evening… or even tomorrow…"

"Maybe if you hadn't just snuck away like that…" Tristan began, but the spirit countered instantly:

"I'd like to see **you** in my situation! Think for a change! I've been a **thief** all my life, and thieves don't stick around after committing a crime! It's just… natural, in a way."

"Take it easy for a moment," Joey told him, "You apologized to Ryou, so why don't you just wait until he comes back and then see what happens next? Listen to some music or something."

"Yeah… I guess…" Bakura mumbled and went to get his mp3 player. He lay down on his bed, put the headphones on and closed his eyes as the music started playing, a frown still on his face.

Seto heard the drums even from the other side of the room and thought (presuming that Bakura always listened to music at that volume level) that it was a miracle that the thief could still hear as good as he did.

"That sounds like an infernal piece of noise," he remarked.

"It's not so bad," Joey protested and crept up to Bakura, where he listened for a moment – it was so loud that he even heard parts of the singing. Returning to his bed, he said: "System of a Down. Not bad at all."

"Not my cup of tea," the CEO insisted.

"…You drink tea?" Tristan asked after a pause.

"Don't **you**?"

The other brunet wrinkled his nose. "Only when I'm sick. Mom practically has to force me."

"Admittedly, I prefer a cup of coffee over a cup of tea any day," Seto replied.

"You don't say!" Joey and Tristan pretended to be awestruck, then they laughed and warded off Seto's attempts to pinch them.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Ryou came back half an hour later and got ready for bed right away. When he sat down on his bed, already in his pajamas, Bakura sat up and turned off his music.

"Ryou?" he asked, trying to start a conversation. The others remained silent: Tristan was writing a text message to Serenity, and Joey was snuggled up against Seto, who was absent-mindedly petting the blond hair with one hand and using the other to work on an "Evil" Sudoku in a magazine he had brought along. All three listened, hoping that things would become peaceful again.

"Ryou, listen…" Bakura began, but silenced when the other teen shook his head.

"No, **you** listen, Bakura. I'm sorry I was so angry before, but… you know I just can't walk away from things I am responsible for, if only partially."

"Responsible?! **I** was the one throwing the darts!"

"But **I** told Mr. Davidson that I'd take full responsibility for you," Ryou said calmly.

"Oh, come on…"

"Look, just don't worry about it. I talked to a lady at the reception – I also showed her what happened – and apologized. I even offered to make it up to them if I could, but she told me that that wouldn't be necessary. I guess if you'd have smashed the pool table or something, it would have been a lot worse. And according to her, it really isn't the first time that it's happened; they've had it worse."

"Oh Ra… then I guess me and Marik won't be playing darts anymore…"

Now Ryou smiled at him. "You still can, silly; just don't throw the darts so hard from peculiar angles!"

Relieved, Bakura grinned. "I'll keep that in mind next time."

"Hug me?" his lighter half asked, reaching out to him.

"That and more," the tomb robber purred, then crawled onto Ryou's bed and gave him the requested hug plus a very passionate kiss. In no time, it seemed, they had entirely forgotten about the world around them as Bakura began to undo the buttons of Ryou's pajama top while his lover tried to get the shirt off him.

"I think this calls for an early bedtime," Tristan smirked as he sent the message to his girlfriend.

Seto looked interested as he put away the magazine. "Do us all a favor, Taylor, and turn off those lights."

"Alright, as long as you guys promise to stay off **my** bed," Joey's best friend grinned as he got up and went to the light switch.

"Quit worrying and get a move on with those lights!" Bakura demanded, and a split second later, the lights were out. As Tristan lay down in his bed again, surrounded by the sounds of some wet kisses and occasional moaning, he thought:

_'Well, thank heavens I have a __**girl**__friend, otherwise I might even want to join in… and probably spoil their fun…'_

* * *


	25. Chapter 25

Well, another chapter done... this wasn't easy to do, I'm more used to writing as much as I can in one go, but this one was "scrap-work", as I call it (don't know if that has an influence on the reading flow)... It's been a busy week for me and my family because my grandmother died, and there were many things that had to be done, and I just didn't feel all that much like writing. On the other hand, I'm trying to get as much done as I can, because once school starts again, I will surely have less time than in the first semester _-sigh-_

Anyway, on with the story...

**drowningsiren**: Oh, I never claimed to know how to stop a toboggan the right way - all I ever had were either the simple "wooden sleds" (as I always refer to them) or plastic sleds with steering wheels and brakes. Wow, that sounds like an exciting experience (hope you'rre not getting me wrong or anything)... Heh, I wish Dad would have had his camera with him on some of our skiing/sledding excursions (he's the family paparazzi), especially when we were in Braunwald: he told me that I had lost my sled, and it had gone way down into the deep snow, so of course he had to go get it because I was too little :D

**Solo's Orca**: It's a term that means as much as "girl germs" (or boy germs, too, but I've only heard it being used when talking about girls)... it's a kids' thing, but I crack up every time I hear someone say that (like in Dexter's Laboratory, he was practically paranoid about those things _-lol-_)...

**dragonlady222**: I've also encountered several ones that were described as "Easy", but in the end I had to give because I simply couldn't see the solution... Stay tuned for that ;) Hmm yeah, I figured that after all that's happened, he might see quite a bit of fun in winter sports :)

**finalfantasys-child**: Hehe, now I wonder where I got that idea from (must've been my wayward "sudden inspiration")... I remember that so well from Dex' Lab :D

**ManjoumePaigeykun**: Ah, that's great! Most people I know don't really like that game :( Oh well, in return, I don't play Jass (card game) ;) Glad you liked the chapter...

**bookworm3213**: Thanks! We used to have a table soccer thing once, but Dad broke it because he was handling it too roughly XD Really? I'm the exact opposite: I suck at math and such, but I'm always up for a Sudoku (preferably Medium or Hard... Evil just isn't fun when you can't solve one)...

**sweetchica55**: Well, there are other things I cannot do, like download full episodes of (insert something here) from the Internet - my brother thinks I'm the biggest idiot... Hehe, I'm not telling you yet. But that question will be answered :)

* * *

Tristan was the only one who woke up at the soft beeping of Ryou's alarm clock. He sat up, silenced the device, then looked around. As far as he could tell, two beds had been unoccupied all night long…

"Well, I guess I'll go take a shower before waking them up," he said to himself as he got out of bed and went to get his clothes for today. No sooner had he stepped out of the room and the door closed behind him when he was greeted with an odd sight: a horde of girls had gathered in front of the door to the boys' bathroom, and those in front were pressing their ears against the door. Not a word was said. Tristan was just about to tap the nearest girl on the shoulder when Tea stepped out of the girls' bathroom.

"Hey Tea, what's going on?" he asked her, jabbing his thumb at the cluster of hushed females.

"Malik and Marik are in there," the brunette replied as if that explained everything, but added for good measure: "**Alone**."

For a moment, Tristan didn't react at all, but then he slowly said: "…Oh."

"They need a life, if you ask me," Tea sighed, nodding her head in the direction of her classmates.

"Shut up, bitch!" one of the girls hissed.

"**What** did you say?!" Tea retorted in a menacing tone of voice. It was sign that she was about to erupt, and such moments made her friends go chalk-white in the face – like Tristan, who retreated a step and muttered:

"Um… I think I forgot my shampoo…" He turned around and realized that he had just left the room without the card to get back in. "Oh no…" he groaned as he heard Tea arguing heatedly with the others. A catfight was about to take place, and it was good advice to get the hell out of the way before that happened. "Guys! Guys, let me in!" he called and knocked on the door.

"You're asking for it!"

"I'll scratch your eyes out!"

"Oh yeah?! Try to if you dare!"

"C'mon, guys, I wanna **live**!" Tristan whined and knocked harder. A split second before the fight would begin, the door opened. Joey stood there, wearing nothing but his pajama shorts; he looked really sleepy.

"Jesus Christ, man, what's the matter?" he mumbled.

"I'm safe now!" the brunet cheered and darted past him.

"Hmm?" the blond wondered, but then his ears rang as the girls cried out:

"Ooh, look!"

"Where's Seto?"

"Did you get laid?"

"You must tell us everything!"

Still half-asleep, Joey just blinked. As the mob of girls moved towards his door, Tea yelled:

"Joey, you idiot! Close the damn door!"

Miraculously, he did; and not a second too late. A series of dismayed cries could be heard when the door slammed shut right in the fangirls' faces. The dismay turned into anger, and Tea slammed the door to her room shut before they could round on her.

Bakura scowled darkly as he sat up; hearing a bunch of girls chattering right outside the room plus a lot of door-slamming right after waking up did **not** make him a happy camper. "Bloody females…" he growled.

"Let them be…" Ryou muttered.

"Like hell I will." His darker half stood up and yelled grumpily: "Hey, shut the fuck up!" Then he flung the pillow at the door as if to emphasize his point. Surprisingly, the noise outside died down, and for all they knew, the girls had gone to do whatever they did.

"The pillow was pointless," Tristan remarked as the spirit went to retrieve said object from where it lay at the door.

"So what? Stupid bimbos…" was the only response.

"I guess it was my fault… sorry," Joey yawned.

"You should put on a shirt next time," Ryou advised him.

"I'm grateful – I could be dead now!" Tristan huffed, showing his friend thumbs-up.

"Don't you think you're exaggerating a bit, Taylor?" The ruckus had woken Seto up as well, who wiped at his eyes with his hands.

"You've obviously never encountered the horror that is known as a catfight," Tristan huffed.

"I keep my distance to such people."

"Now that my sleep has been deranged, let's have some action," Bakura said gruffly as he went to get his clothes.

"Sounds like you're in desperate need of venting your anger," Joey grinned.

"Yeah, and I want to get a move on for your guys' sake… before I'd mess up one of your pretty faces."

"You heard the man; rise and shine!" Tristan snickered when Seto in particular grumbled at that display of cheerfulness. Again, they went through the process of a quick shower before arming themselves with coats and snowsuits against the cold. When Malik and Marik had joined them, they left the hotel. The others were a bit surprised that their first destination wasn't the lift, but a little restaurant instead.

"This is my **real** wake-up call," Seto simply said as he went inside.

"Coffee, but not Nescafe," Joey briefly explained before following.

"**That's** what I call having privileges. It's quite like him…" Marik remarked.

"Actually, it was my idea. It'd take all the fun out of the day if he would be grumpy all the time," Tristan told them.

"Oh, so that is why he's not being a bastard towards you anymore?" Malik asked.

"Sort of, yeah."

A minor snowball fight ensued while they waited for Seto and Joey to return. Later, they finally went up the mountain again, and before long, Bakura too was his usual self again. Insane laughter echoed after them as the strategy for the mini-war was put to use as they raced down the hill. Seto, Tristan and Joey were caught in the middle of it all and sometimes had to use their ski poles to protect themselves from the snowballs. When they were going down the second time, Ryou aimed poorly once, and the snowball hit Seto in the face. Luckily for his roommate, the white-haired boy really did throw like a girl (as Tristan had said during the PE test), so it didn't hurt.

"Crikey, Kaiba, I'm sorry!" he apologized, startled, while Bakura burst out laughing along with the others.

Seto wiped the snow off his face and got a contemplating look.

"Thinking about getting a pair of snow goggles, maybe?" Malik teased.

"No," the CEO replied, "I'm thinking about where first I should 'poke' Ryou with my poles…"

Said boy paled a bit, though he believed to see a glint in the blue eyes that meant that he wouldn't really get **hurt** (on the other hand, he told himself not to be so sure because it was Seto, after all), and he shook the driver's shoulder a bit. "Bakura, could we go a bit faster? Like, right **now**?"

"I thought you would never ask. Ra bless you, Kaiba!" Bakura yelled happily before advising his Hikari to make himself as small as possible in order to gain more speed.

"Just you wait!" the tall brunet threatened as he started to go even faster.

"The hunt is on…" Malik grinned.

"Well, there's no time to lose!" his Yami exclaimed, "Keep up if you can!" he added, glancing at the other two skiers before starting to gain more speed as well.

"Way ahead of you!" those other two retorted.

Ahead of them, Seto had almost caught up with the toboggan. Bakura looked around his Hikari, who was clinging to him as if for dear life, and decided: "I won't make it that easy for him…!"

Abruptly (or at least, as abruptly as he could) (1), he steered off the groomed run and right into the woods. Ryou practically shrieked as they went over the edge.

For a short moment, Seto considered to give up the chase when he saw them go over the edge. Then again… the woods offered quite a challenge – to maneuver around all those trees…

_'To come home in one piece or to take the risk, that is the question. Oh, what the heck; if I back down, he'll probably think that I'm a sissy… and revenge __**is**__ sweet, as they say…' _

Having made that decision, Seto strayed off the groomed run as well and was sweating bullets a few seconds later as he faced the tricky task of avoiding the trees. Orientation wasn't that much of a problem, thanks to Ryou's screams.

"Bakuraaaaa…! Oh my– Aah! **Christ**, that was close! Look out…!"

"Lean over, Hikari! Left! Right!"

"We're gonna die!" the good-mannered teen whined.

"Now's not the time to be a wuss! Right!"

(Meanwhile…)

"Um… Joey, d'you think Kaiba knows what he just did?"

"Why shouldn't he?"

"I taught you guys how to go downhill… but not exactly in the slalom fashion."

"I bet he's alright! Let's go too!"

"Dude…!" Tristan groaned, but it was too late: Joey had already turned to the left and was following the other three into the woods. His best friend stopped, staring after him.

"That's more like it!"

"May only those who are worthy survive!"

With those battle cries, Malik and Marik proceeded to follow the rest of the party. For a couple of seconds, Tristan just stood there.

_'What the hell did they get themselves in to? Hope they all get down in one piece… including me! Geez, Marik's battle cry is really motivating… __**not**_._'_

And he pushed off over the edge as well.

(Back to the front…)

How he managed, he didn't know, but after long last, it seemed, Seto had come through the woods. When the last trees were passed, he found that they were on a wide stretch of the run. On the other end of the "road", Bakura was sitting on the toboggan and cackling like a madman. He looked as if he had been told that it would be Halloween every day of every year. Poor Ryou was on all fours in the snow beside the sled, panting and trembling. Seto came to a halt beside Ryou and tuned in to Bakura's rapturous cheers over the "kick-ass ride".

"…so awesome! I wish we could do it again! Oh Ra, thanks a million for that ride! The gods must be in high spirits…!" He carried on, thanking a bunch of other Egyptian gods.

Seto just shook his head – yes, the tomb robber was definitely still high on adrenaline – then turned his attention to Ryou.

"Oh, my poor heart… dear Lord… but… I'm still alive… or so I **think**…"

"You're a picture of misery, but definitely alive," Seto confirmed.

Ryou looked up, and his face became even whiter than it already was. "…I'm dead," he said softly.

The young billionaire decided that it was time to do what he had followed them for in the first place. He raised one of his poles and watched how Ryou cringed and bowed his head. Apparently, Bakura had gotten through his euphoric speech, for the spirit suddenly snarled:

"Kaiba, don't you dare…!"

_'Time to get this over with.' _

Just then, Joey came out of the woods as well, and his amber eyes widened at the sight in front of him. "Seto…?!"

Said teen pursed his lips, then took action. It was over within a second. He brought the pole down and – poked Ryou. Not roughly; it was like back when he had found Joey and Tristan entangled with Rex and Weevil. A short, ginger poke.

Now it was Bakura who had a remarkable resemblance with a goldfish as he gawked at the CEO. Joey sighed deeply, then crossed the path. "You know, you really had me going there for a moment. Sometimes you really have such a weird sense of humor…"

Ryou opened his brown eyes and stared up at Seto in disbelief. "Kaiba…" he began.

"Spare yourself the question which I shall answer here and now: you were whimpering and cowering so much like a dog that did something bad, so I simply didn't have the heart to poke you harder. …Yes, I've officially cracked," he added sarcastically, knowing that his explanation would baffle them.

"You didn't have the heart?!" Bakura repeated incredulously while Ryou was speechless. After a moment's consideration, he growled: "But my Hikari is mine!" To underline his statement, he jumped off the sled and put his arms around Ryou.

"Don't be ridiculous; I'm more than satisfied with what I've got," Seto assured him with a meaningful glance at Joey, who gave him a smile that was impossible to resist. That realization made Seto kiss him instantly, and when that happened, Joey was in a situation he couldn't have gotten out of even if he had wanted to – but of course, he didn't…

In a flurry of snow, Malik and Marik left the woods as well and raised their eyebrows when they saw what was going on.

"Okay, we've **definitely** missed something here," Malik said slowly.

"Indeed. Something's about to melt, and it sure isn't the snow," Marik agreed as he watched the two teens kiss.

"Where's Tristan?" Ryou asked, looking around.

"Maybe he chickened –" Bakura began, but silenced when a lone skier appeared between the trees as well. "Oh, forget it."

"How the heck did you manage to get those sleds through there in one piece? You know, you really are kinda crazy," Tristan told him.

"Why, thank you!" Bakura grinned.

"Oh brother… Hmm, what's up with **them**?"

"Ah, say no more. Here's a news bulletin for you guys: Kaiba's got a heart, and it told him not to be hard to my Hikari."

"Impressive," the two Egyptians replied in unison.

"Word," was all Tristan said, but continued in his thoughts:_ 'Well, he has shown that he has a soft spot for Joey – oh Jesus, he'd kill me if I'd say that – but that he has one for others as well… he's definitely changed.'_

"Furthermore, he officially announced that he has cracked," Bakura continued, miming the voice of a newsreader. This time, neither of the three knew what to say.

"Keep in mind that he forgot to add that I meant that in a sarcastic way," Seto suddenly spoke up after ending the kiss in the meantime.

"Kaiba in a strait jacket… guess we'll have to wait on that one a while," Malik sighed.

"Naturally; who's the one laughing like a maniac while going downhill? Not me, that's for sure."

"…Touché."

Seto smirked. Joey, on the other hand, looked up to the skies and frowned. "Um… guys, perhaps we should get going now. It's not such a good day…"

He was right: the skies were very cloudy and grey. There was absolutely no room for the sun to poke through.

"Good idea! C'mon, Ryou! Last one down is a rotten egg!" Bakura agreed as he re-positioned the sled.

"But no more going through the woods, or else I might get a heart attack," his lighter half agreed.

"Yeah, yeah, I know. 1, 2, 3 – go!"

And they were off again. Their "insane laughing", as Seto called it, came quite in handy: other people on the same run went out of their way as they came along, so they didn't need to be stingy in terms of speed. Unfortunately, the weather seemed to get worse, and by the time they were almost done with another run, an icy wind came up. For all they knew, a storm could be approaching, perhaps even a blizzard.

"Aw, crap! Oh well, at least we could have **some** fun!" Joey sighed ruefully when they decided to go back to the hotel.

"And what fun it was!" Malik added.

"But what will we do now?" Bakura wondered.

"We could go to the ice rink. Then you could see the Pharaoh fall as well," Marik suggested.

"But aside from watching a bunch of people fall on their asses, what could we do there?" Tristan asked.

Marik grinned gleefully as if he had expected that response. "Ah, that's the key point. When I was there yesterday, there weren't many people at all, and if that's the case today too, it's no problem to join in."

"But we don't– Wait a minute, you don't mean…?"

"What else? Let's go!"

"Is that allowed?" Ryou asked skeptically.

"Who cares? It guarantees chaos, so it's worth trying!" Bakura told him and hurried off after Marik, who was dragging Tristan along.

"If they're going to do what I think they will do, count me out," Seto said decidedly.

"Wait, don't tell me…" Joey covered his eyes with one hand and almost touched Seto's forehead with the other, obviously miming to read his thoughts. "…Work?" he guessed sarcastically.

"Since the weather is so bad, why not?" The CEO turned to Ryou. "Why **you** put up with this, though… One wouldn't think that of you."

Malik elbowed his friend. "His duty is to run around and apologize to people if Marik and/or Bakura go haywire, right?"

"**Someone** has to do it… I'm on the verge of giving up trying and teaching him to do that himself," the white-haired boy mumbled, rubbing his arm a bit where he had been elbowed.

Seto personally doubted that Ryou would be successful even he would still be motivated, but he didn't say that out loud after the previous statement. He briefly said goodbye to them, then headed back to the room.

"Looks like you're being held in fairly high esteem in Kaiba's book," Malik grinned as the trio headed toward the ice rink.

"I think you're exaggerating. Bakura and Marik are just too freakish for Kaiba's taste," Ryou replied matter-of-factly.

"Yeah; it's not like you'd see **them** playing chess on the laptop with him," Joey laughed, "How did that come to be, anyway? I'm still a bit baffled…"

"It wasn't **my** idea," Ryou said defensively, "I had just put away our clothes and such and was reading a book when he suddenly asked me if I play chess. So I said yes, occasionally I do, and then he made me the offer."

"You're having a good influence on him," Malik told Joey, "I mean, he's still a bit stuck-up at times, but he's also changed quite a bit – just look at how he hangs out with us!"

"I guess…" The blond shrugged. "But don't tell him that, otherwise he might try to deny it or something."

"Oh, don't worry, I get it: that's something he only talks about with you and his brother, I suppose. My lips are sealed," the Egyptian assured him.

They had arrived at the ice rink now, and there they stared at the scene on the ice. After a while, Malik whistled.

"Well, they're good at improvising, you gotta hand it to them."

"It looks like loads of fun to me! And look, the ice must have been cleaned!" Joey exclaimed.

Cheering, he and Malik rushed to the rink – and let themselves fall onto the ice, sliding towards the others.

"It's been **resurfaced**, Joey, not cleaned!" Ryou called after them, but of course they didn't hear that. Luckily, there weren't many people there, so things would really need to get out of hand to make them complain. But as usual, Ryou was called to a woman who promptly asked whether he knew those "characters". The teen merely sighed. Oh boy, did he ever know them…

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Seto worked for about two hours when the door to the room opened. He didn't give that much thought until he found himself looking at a mop of blond hair instead of the laptop screen. Any other person would have yelped and backed away hastily, but Seto's only reaction was that his eyes widened a bit.

"Puppy?" he asked.

"Hey, don't you think you've worked enough for now? Why don't you come back to the rink with me? Then we'd be an even number of people!"

"That's all you need me for? To make it even?" He smirked. "In fact, they **are** even now that you're not there, so you could just stay here."

"And simply watch you work? Sorry, but I've got far too much energy for that. I'd probably piss you off in a matter of minutes because I'd keep asking you if we could do something," Joey laughed, "And besides, I said I'd be back! C'mon, please?" he begged.

"You're sounding more and more like Mokuba, did you notice?"

Joey just grinned. Mokuba had once told him that when he was in doubt that Seto would agree, 'make use of what he can't resist'. "I might have. So what d'you say? Please?"

If Mokuba had given Joey advice on how to be persuasive, Seto thought, the next step would be something like "pretty please" or even puppy-eyes… "You realize that if I come with you now, I will want to work in the evening?"

"If you must, sure," Joey replied with an impatient wave of his hand.

"Can you promise me that there will be no more persuasion acts, then?"

"Big promise."

"Are you sure?"

"What are you waiting for, a Scout's honor? I hate to disappoint you, but I wasn't a boy scout," Joey sighed, crossing his arms.

"I just wanted to be absolutely sure. Okay, I'll come, but if whatever you're doing consists of bowling people over or something, do not expect me to go that low."

"Don't worry, that's not what we're doing!" Joey assured him brightly as Seto saved his work and shut down the computer; the CEO silently told himself to be alert anyway – just because they weren't bowling people over didn't mean that the activity would appeal to him.

Hand in hand, they went to the rink, though Seto was reminded of Christmas when he saw how eager and impatient Joey was. They passed a few guests along the way, and as usual, Seto didn't care whether they looked or not. If they recognized him and had paid attention to the news, they would know what was going on. He would only react if they would start speaking badly of Joey…

At the rink, he couldn't believe what he was seeing. He wouldn't have guessed that they would do that – but apparently, they thought it was a good way to get rid of more energy.

Like Marik had predicted, there were very few other people there, and they seemed to have decided that it was best if they just kept to themselves. The whole rest of the gang was on the ice, although only Yugi, Yami and Tea wore ice skates – and those who didn't have that equipment used the bar that went all around the rink to support themselves. On one end, Tristan and Malik were sitting on the ice, looking back at the others. Bakura was lying prone on the ice, facing the two. Ryou was beside him and had placed his hands on his shoulders. They looked as if they were about to "deliver the rock", like in a game of curling – except that Ryou was about to throw Bakura instead of a stone.

"Go on, Hikari!" Bakura urged him.

"Alright. Here goes– Whoops! Ow!"

Of course, without ice skates or special shoes, it was hard to move without falling down, and exactly that was what happened to Ryou: he pushed Bakura, who went sliding towards Malik and Tristan, but as soon as he had done that and was about to straighten himself, he slipped and fell hard on his rear end. Even as he was acting like an improvised stone, Bakura couldn't help but laugh, and so did Marik. Yugi skated over to Ryou and helped him get up again.

"Are you okay, Ryou?"

"Yes… Geez, I'll get a bruise for sure," the teen replied in a clenched voice.

At the other end of the rink, Bakura crashed into Malik, and they started laughing their heads off.

Seto turned to Joey, not quite able to rid himself of the incredulous look on his face. "Puppy, you're not serious, are you?"

"Of course I am! It's lots of fun! I mean, listen to them laugh!"

"Joey, they laugh about **anything**."

"Aw, at least give it a try! You can push me, if you want!"

Seto narrowed his eyes. "If you thought for one second that **I'd** pretend to be a stone…"

"I know; that's why I made you that offer! So, what d'you say?"

"Hey Joey! Kaiba! C'mon over here!" Yugi called cheerfully.

"Coming, Yug'!" Joey yelled back and beckoned Seto to follow him as he ran to his friend.

The brunet followed, though not making a secret of how skeptic he was concerning this game.

"Now we all can be divided into pairs! Great!" Tea cheered.

"Get ready, Gardner, we're up!" Marik told her and practically made a pancake landing on the ice. "Push as hard as you can!"

"You don't need to tell me," the girl replied as she skated over and gripped his shoulders.

"Aim for the middle – I'm going into the house **and** getting a strike!"

"Instead of mixing up different sports, just concentrate on sliding," Tea told him with a theatrical sigh, then pushed him as hard as she could. With a loud "Incoming!", Marik slid forward like a penguin. The others stayed put (after all, stones didn't scramble to get out of each other's way) and started laughing all over again when the Egyptian crashed into them.

"Joey, you're up now!" Yugi said.

"All right! C'mon, Seto!" Joey slipped underneath the bar and flopped down onto the ice like Marik had done before.

"Something tells me that I'm going to regret this…" Seto muttered as he stalled a bit.

"It builds character," Yami stated.

"What would **you** know about it?" Seto grumbled.

"Admittedly, I've fallen enough so far to know what I'm talking about."

"…The first one to laugh dies."

_'And what about the second one?'_ they all thought, but kept that to themselves.

Seto was relieved when he managed to take a stance like Ryou and Tea had before him without falling down.

"Give it all you've got," the blond prompted him.

That would most surely result in a crash, and Seto wondered exactly **where** they saw the thrill in that. He was quite sure that he would never understand this… Biting back a sigh, he grabbed Joey by the shoulders and pushed him. During that motion, his right foot slipped, and as Joey went sliding towards the other "stones", Seto made a pancake landing as well, though definitely not voluntarily.

Even as Joey joined them, thus transforming them into a heap in the "house" that was drawn beneath the ice, Bakura and Malik clapped a hand over each other's mouths to keep themselves from laughing out loud. Tristan did the same thing, and Joey spun around to stare back at his boyfriend.

"Kaiba! Oh God, how are you?" Yugi and Tea exclaimed in unison and skated over to help him up. Ryou wanted to come along too, but he relied on Yami to steady him as he carefully made his way towards the fallen one.

"Kaiba?" Yugi asked, gingerly touching the brunet's shoulder.

The teen stirred and slowly started to get up. "It builds character… Yeah right…!" he grumbled.

Tea sighed. "He's alright!" she called to the others.

"Of course he is; he's in his element, after all," Bakura muttered. Joey elbowed him, though it was doubtful that Seto had heard that.

"Yami, go see who's closest to the middle – before Kaiba might decide to show you how much character he built thanks to this fall," Yugi whispered.

"If you say so…" The spirit skated over to where the other five teens were still in place and quickly checked who had won that round.

"Is it safe to go back there?" Joey asked.

"You think that Kaiba could be mad at you?"

"Well, yeah, I mean, it's my fault he's here in the first place."

"I imagine that my comment about building character would enrage him more than the fact that you persuaded him to come along – provided that he's even angry at you at all, of course."

Somewhat worriedly, Joey glanced back to the other side, where Seto was using the bar to climb to his feet again. Tea and Yugi helped him a bit.

"Let's get back there," Marik suggested as he, Malik and Tristan prepared to use the sill right behind them to send themselves sliding back across the ice.

"C'mon, man, you're not alone," Tristan encouraged his friend.

"Yeah…" Joey mumbled and joined their ranks, then they went sliding across the ice again.

"Well, puppy, it looks like you can handle yourself better on the ice when we lack the appropriate equipment," Seto said matter-of-factly as he slipped underneath the bar to get off the ice.

"I'm sorry…"

"You don't have to be. This is just not my thing. But since I'm here, I'll stay and watch a bit, deal?"

"Okay," Joey nodded, happy that Seto didn't hold him responsible for what had happened before.

"To make it fair, I'll sit the next rounds out as well," Ryou volunteered.

"Fine… C'mon, Blondie, we shall be victorious together!" Bakura declared.

"Gotcha!"

"Treat him well – I'm watching you," Seto told Bakura seriously as he and Ryou went to sit on one of the benches close by.

The tomb robber just made a circle with his thumb and index finger. If he had really intended for it to be reassuring, it didn't quite do the trick, for Seto still kept a very close eye on him, just to be sure. After a long while full of laughter, crashes and falls, the gang left the ice rink, and the other people decided to make use of that as long as it lasted.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

They spent the time until dinner with all sorts of leisure activities, most of which took place in the game room. After dinner, some of them wanted to go back there, but certain important things (such as the pool table) were already occupied.

"Kids?! What are they doing? They don't even know how to play!" Bakura sighed exasperatedly as he saw a bunch of pre-teens running around the table, pushing the balls with their hands instead of using the sticks.

"I consider it a sign, and that sign says that I really should get some more work done, like I had intended to," Seto said with a shrug.

"What a workaholic… it must be such a sad life to lead…" Marik used a falsely sorrowful voice to say this.

"It's a living."

"…Point taken. Ah, the things you can afford…"

"Exactly. You have a preference for doing things that I wouldn't consider to do in my wildest dreams, and the same goes for me and work."

"Unless **he's** around, perhaps," Bakura interjected, winking at Joey.

"It works the other way around as well." Seto gave Joey a look that was a perfect mixture of being knowing and seductive.

"Say no more," the two Yamis replied with sly grins, "Why don't you two run along and 'work'…?"

"That actually sounds like a good idea, wouldn't you agree, puppy?" Seto purred, putting an arm around the blond's waist.

"I thought you wanted to get some work done," the teen retorted with a faint blush.

"**That** work, yes, and then there might just be some **more** work…"

"Oh well, if I won't be too bored, let's go."

"Trust me; there will be no time for that."

With an arm around each other, they left the two spirits, who looked back at the children.

"It's so tempting to scare them so we could have the table for ourselves… it would be so easy!" Bakura was almost whining because he wanted to do exactly that so much.

"Ryou would throw a fit if you'd do that," Marik warned him.

"If he wouldn't, I'd have already taken action."

"I feel for you," Marik assured him and put an arm around his shoulders. Bakura just sighed.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Shortly after nine, Ryou ambled to the game room in search of Bakura. He had spent roughly an hour playing a very simple variation of Pictionary (2) with Malik, Yugi, Yami and Tea – they had done without pre-making instruction cards or teams, it had simply been a fun free-for-all game. Particularly Marik had promised to come get his Hikari after playing a game of pool with Seto and Joey, but now it had simply been too long since that plan was made, and Ryou thought that something couldn't be right (Malik had been more relaxed about this delay).

One quick glance was all it took to see that neither one of the two Yamis were there; the same could be said for Seto and Joey. Tristan was present, though, and he was in the middle of playing a one-man game of darts.

"Tristan, have you seen Bakura or Marik?"

"No. Why do you ask?"

Ryou briefly explained the situation. Tristan shrugged and threw another dart, hitting the bull's eye. "Sorry, but I never saw them here since I came."

"He had better not be getting into trouble again," the white-haired boy frowned.

"They're probably just romping around someplace. Or maybe they went to your room."

"But we're just across the corridor! Why wouldn't they just come to get us instead of going to our room?"

"Search me."

A sigh. "Thanks, Tristan."

With that, Ryou went back to where he had come from, but this time to the other door. He knocked twice before using the card to enter. "Bakura, are you– Oh God!" he squeaked, blushing and averting his gaze, "Um… I hope I'm not disturbing… too much, I mean…"

Joey was shirtless and pinned against the wall. Seto was keeping him in place as he held him firmly by the shoulders. His shirt had slid off his shoulders. Of course, they both were a bit breathless…

"What's up, Ryou?" Joey asked as casually as he could.

"I just wanted to ask if you had seen Bakura and Marik."

"They were waiting for some kids to get away from the pool table a while ago."

"I see…" Ryou muttered thoughtfully. "Well, again, I'm sorry for interrupting you…" Although Joey tried to reassure him that it wasn't a problem, he decided that a quick getaway was by far his best choice right now – even though they were on opposite ends of the room, he could sense Seto's impatience. "Have fun," he added hastily before closing the door again.

_'Let's face it: he's nowhere to be found. I just hope he didn't give those poor kids Joey mentioned the scare of their lives or something…' _he thought as he stood there for a moment, contemplating about what to do next. Maybe he should just read a book… but he had barely finished the thought when he slapped his forehead. _'Gosh darn it, why didn't I think of that a little bit earlier?! I can't go back in there! Stupid, stupid…!' _He decided to go see if Tristan would mind if he kept him company for a while, though his mind continued to rant about how he had forgotten about his book even as he headed back to the game room.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

"Where were you guys?" Tristan asked when Bakura and Marik entered the game room.

"We were in one of the neighboring hotels."

"Why? Is this one not good enough?"

"No, but when those darn kids had finally gone, we discovered that a couple of balls were missing. And you do need **all** the balls to play pool, otherwise it's no fun," Marik began.

Bakura carried on: "So we got the idea: hey, we could sneak into one of the other hotels and steal a few balls to complete our set again. But when we got there, a sense of guilt came over us." He rolled his eyes when Tristan gaped at them. "Yes, hell froze over in that moment. I guess Ryou's constant persuasions to act 'nice' are getting to me…" he grumbled.

"Anyway, so we were standing outside, debating whether we should go through with our plan –"

"Outside?! In that storm?!" Tristan interrupted them.

"Yes. In the end, we just went into the hotel and played a game there."

"**A** game…?"

"Several, then. And now we're back."

"You guys are so weird!" Tristan laughed, "Oh, by the way…" He pointed to a chair that was at the window. The Yamis looked, and Marik chuckled a bit.

"Right… I'll go find Malik now. See you tomorrow." He gave Bakura a clap on the shoulder. Somewhat absent-mindedly, the gesture was returned, then the Egyptian wandered off after briefly saluting Tristan.

Ryou had fallen asleep on the chair. His head was tilted backwards a bit. A barely audible snore came from his slightly parted lips when he breathed out. He looked so relaxed, so –

"Like an angel," Bakura muttered to himself after he had walked over to the sleeping teen.

"He was looking all over the place for you. And although he claimed that it was because he wanted to make sure that you didn't get into trouble, I think he was missing you," Tristan told him.

"Hikari…" Since he was sure that he had his back turned to the brunet, Bakura allowed himself to smile genuinely as he picked Ryou up and held him bridal style. When he turned back, he looked just like the others knew him: even if he was looking kind, there still was a spark of craziness in his features. Ryou was the only one who got to see his completely serene side. "I'll go put him to bed."

"I'm coming too. It's almost time for bed anyway," Tristan replied with a glance at a clock on the wall.

Bakura nodded, and together they went back to the room. But when they stepped into the corridor that led to their room, Tristan groaned.

"Oh no, not again! Twice a day! What did I do to deserve this?"

A horde of girls was gathered in front of their door, and they acted exactly like they had in front of the bathroom that morning. Some of them looked curious, others excited, and yet others as if they would like to knock down the door and murder somebody.

"Take him," Bakura commanded gruffly and gave Ryou to Tristan. Like a shadow, he crept up to one of the girls and tapped her on the shoulder. As she turned around, he made the scariest face he could imagine. The unsuspecting girl thought in the first moment of shock that it was a demon or something, and she screamed shrilly. Her classmates looked as well, and Bakura hissed and snarled like the evil spirit Ryou had gotten to know him as. Tristan shrank around the corner as the girls stampeded away like a herd of wildebeest. When the coast was clear again, Tristan headed over to Bakura, who was making a good effort to not laugh as loud as he actually wanted to. Still sniggering, he took his Hikari back, whose card Tristan used to get back into the room.

Seto and Joey were on Joey's bed, snuggled up against each other, and the blond in particular was looking bug-eyed at the door when the others entered.

"What the hell was that?"

"Kaiba's fan club just beat it, thanks to Bakura. I don't need to ask what you two were doing, right?" Tristan asked pointedly while the tomb robber gently lay down Ryou on his bed.

"I'm pretty sure that your mind is further down in the gutter than what we actually did," Seto commented.

"It was such a pleasure to scare them! Some of them were about to drool and others… well, Blondie, let's say that you should be thankful that we need cards to enter the rooms. But the looks on their faces… I hope I'll dream about that tonight!" Bakura cackled gleefully.

"Sheesh, they're demented…" Joey shook his head.

"Welcome to my world. I might act impassive around them, but there are plenty of times when I'd just like to shoot them all to the moon," Seto said.

"So apparently some would like to go for my throat…" Joey looked almost amused as he stretched. "Well, they'd have to catch me first."

"And even if they would manage that, I wouldn't let them get away with it," Seto whispered and kissed Joey's neck, making him shudder.

"Guys? Is everything okay?" Yugi's voice asked from the door.

"Sure it is!" Bakura answered.

"You scared them, right? God, I wish I could've seen it!" Marik exclaimed, sounding excited.

"You could have made a movie out of that situation!"

In the corridor, a voice said: "See, Yugi, I **told** you that the tomb robber was probably involved in it."

"You're just jealous, Pharaoh!"

An irritated sigh. "Whatever."

"Oh well… see you tomorrow!" Yugi called, then there was silence outside of their room once more.

"I'm going to bed now; I plan to get up earlier tomorrow so I won't be woken up as unpleasantly as today," Bakura announced.

The others decided to make the most of the situation and got ready for bed as well. Ryou slept on, not noticing how surprised the others were that he hadn't woken up once throughout the entire commotion. Not much longer thereafter, the lights were out in the room, and the only things that made falling asleep difficult were Bakura's snores and sniggers as he appeared to be having a really good dream.

* * *

(1) Yes, although I had said that there is no way to steer, you always see how Calvin can go through woods as well, so why would Bakura be unable to do the same? ;)

(2) The Drawing-and-Guessing game... I'm quite sure that we've all played it before...

I'd be grateful for some reviews as I work towards the end of this... and I predict that it might be a longer while for the next chapter will be here - the start's rather difficult...


	26. Chapter 26

Wow, I guess I am really desperate to make sure that I can finish this story before inspiration leaves me (trust me, it has happened before)...! Aw, I wish I'd have another week of vacation, but I've had so much already, I really shouldn't complain! Anyway, hope you're up for another chapter. I almost screwed up the timeline, but only almost :) I'd have slapped myself if I hadn't noticed...

**Solo's Orca**: Thanks - here ya go ;)

**dragonlady222**: Yeah, that can happen in the mountains... it's ruined some of my ski days too... Yup, like Bakura said: hell is starting to freeze over XD

**finalfantasys-child**: Really? That's good, I had hoped that it would be funny ;) Yeah, so can I! _-grin-_

**sweetchica55**: Thank you - and I can assure you, I will. I won't stop with this until it's done (it would be my first "longer" story that I'd complete)! And thanks for faving me :)))

**RomanGoddess4eva**: It's okay... it was time for her to go. I think we're handling it pretty good - at least in my case, it's the closest death of a family member that I've ever experienced (I hadn't seen my other grandparents often enough to muster as much sadness as I'm doing now)... Your absolute favorite? Wow... well then, I hope I can keep it up :D

**SapphyTheElf**: _-giggles-_ I'm glad that this chapter seems to get appreciated more than I thought it would. Ah yes, fluff... where would I be without fluff...? (yes, I love fluff very much)

* * *

Although the next day's awakening was far more peaceful, Bakura was grumpy anyway, as the others found out when they woke up shortly before eight o'clock. It didn't take a genius to find out why: the storm was still raging outside, and not a single lift went up the mountain.

"Bloody weather! A whole day gone down the drain!" the spirit complained.

"You can go outside like you did yesterday anyway, you just can't go up the hill," Tristan pointed out.

"You were outside?!" Joey gaped at Bakura.

"That type of weather lets you know that you're alive. If you're a man, you don't let a bit of snow and wind stop you," Bakura retorted importantly.

Joey cast an incredulous look at Seto and mouthed: "**A bit** of snow and wind?!" It was definitely more than just **a bit** of snow and wind…

Seto shrugged in response to Joey's reaction, then remarked sarcastically: "And it makes you a man if you have a wish to freeze to death?"

"Ha, ha!" Bakura snorted. Then he pulled off his shirt to look himself over. "Oh yeah, look at all these bruises! I'd say yesterday definitely was a successful day!"

"You're mental! What's good about getting a bruise?" Tristan asked.

"According to Yami, it builds character," Seto replied.

"Really? Then I built lots of character!" Bakura grinned. Slyly, he turned to Ryou: "I'm really curious to see how much character **you've** built…"

The white-haired boy blushed. "Bakura!"

"What? All we need to do is go take a shower together. …Or we could leave out the shower," his Yami answered.

"**Bakura**!"

"Aw, we know that you want to too!" Joey sniggered and didn't stop, even when Ryou gave him a surprisingly withering look. A moment later, though, he changed the subject: "So, what're we gonna do all day long?"

"Stop Kaiba from working?" Bakura suggested nonchalantly.

"Dangerous choice," the CEO growled.

"Truth or dare?" Ryou piped up.

"…If we can't come up with anything else…"

"Pillow fight!" Tristan said brightly.

"That's more like it! And then we could go back to the ice rink and –" Bakura started to agree.

"Before I do **anything**, I need coffee," Seto announced as he got out of bed.

"I thought you hated Nescafe," Ryou said thoughtfully.

"I do. I'll go to the restaurant, blizzard or not."

"That'll be one cold walk…" Joey sighed.

"You know what they say: a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do," Tristan reminded him, raising his index finger.

"You people…" Seto muttered, shaking his head as he went to get his clothes and take a shower. When he got back, the others were checking how much character each of them had built (except Ryou, who stubbornly refused to remove his boxers). "I'll be back soon," he said as he put on his coat.

"Don't stay too long," Joey winked.

"Aw, is the puppy already missing me…?"

"Maybe…"

"Well, it could only be a matter of hours," Seto teased.

"Or days, if you'd successfully get lost somewhere along the way," Tristan added.

"Don't get your hopes up."

Tristan just grinned goofily, and Seto stuck around for a kiss on the neck from Joey, then he set out on the mission to obtain the first part of his daily dose of caffeine.

"So the great Seto Kaiba really does have a sense of humor…" Bakura muttered thoughtfully when they were alone again, then thought for a moment before saying: "But I haven't heard him laugh yet – at least not genuinely. I assume that he **is** capable of doing that, isn't he, Blondie?"

"Correct, Mr. Genius. And your point is…?"

"I'm just curious what that's like. So could you drop a hint how we could make that happen?"

"Well…" For a moment, Joey thought about whether he should play a part in Bakura's little plot (whatever it was). This would either annoy or amuse Seto. _'Take a chance; make use of your privileges.' _"What's the friendliest way you can torture somebody?" he asked them.

"Define friendly," the tomb robber reminded him.

"Oh yeah, I forgot… with you, one needs to take precautions…"

"As long as you're not rendered defenseless or something, I'd say tickling," Ryou spoke up.

"Bingo," Joey said.

Tristan and Bakura both looked astonished. "No way! He's ticklish?!"

Joey nodded happily. Ryou's darker half was very interested in this. "So that's the key… Listen up, soldiers, your general has a plan."

"We're in the army now?" Tristan wondered.

"You're in the army now, oh-oh you're in the army now…" Ryou sang softly.

"Hikari, what do you think you're doing?"

"Um… that phrase just reminded me of a song, that's all." (1)

Bakura was speechless for a moment. "…Right…" The look he gave Ryou spelled "weirdo" in capital letters. "…Anyway, here's what we'll do…" He beckoned them to come closer before revealing his scheme in a low voice.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

As he returned to the room, Seto thought that Bakura had been right: that weather really did let you know that you were alive – after all, as long as one could shiver, one hadn't frozen yet – but it also served as a reminder why people cherished warmth so much.

"As far as I'm concerned, we don't need to go outside anymore today…" he said upon entering the room and hanging up his coat. When no response whatsoever greeted him, he frowned.

"Joey?" Nothing. "Ryou?" Still nothing. "What the hell…?" he muttered when he saw that the beds of the aforementioned boys were empty. Had they walked out on him?

What happened next was a blur in his mind when he thought back on it. He remembered a chorus of loud voices (the loudest one yelled "Cowabunga!"), and the next thing he knew, he was lying on the bed and laughing as if he would never be able to laugh again after this. Hands were all over him, poking his sides and teasing his skin mercilessly, even through the fabric of his clothes. He squirmed and desperately tried to defend himself, but to no avail. Once or twice, he managed to get hold of a wrist, but the pokes and prods that immediately followed were too much, and he simply **had** to let go. Now his sides were already starting to ache, and he wondered how much longer it would be until he'd see his life flash before his eyes.

"S-Stop… enough…!" He stifled a yelp when someone squeezed his sides. "Pl-Please!"

To his immense relief, the tickling attack came to an end. Panting, he could finally take a "relaxed" moment to look at his attackers. His roommates. Even Ryou had participated! Bakura looked as if he had seen a ghost, and Tristan was slowly nodding his head, signaling impression (after all, not only had they heard Seto laugh, but he had used the magic word as well!). It was then that Seto noticed that his head wasn't lying on the bed, but in someone's lap instead. He looked up to see Joey smiling at him.

"Puppy…" he said quietly, "What was **that** for?"

"I was just following the general's orders," the blond replied, gently brushing a few strands of Seto's now ruined hairdo out of his face.

"General? Have you declared war against me? And who **is** the general?" Seto asked, eying them suspiciously while he caught his breath again.

"I am," Bakura declared proudly, "Not only the Pharaoh is capable of being a leader…" He nodded approvingly at the others. "Well done, men, you'd get medals if I had any."

_'How did they know how to bring me down? Unless…' _He gave Joey a pointed look. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but: am I right when I suppose that it was thanks to you that your so-called general could devise a plan which is based on knowing about this trait of mine that could most probably be described as a weakness?"

Joey chuckled nervously. He had a suspicion that he about to be in for it… "Um… no correction needed," he answered in a rather small voice.

Turning his attention to someone else, Seto carried on: "And what was the purpose of this plan, if I may ask?"

Unlike Joey, Bakura wasn't at all intimidated by the calculating calmness the CEO was showing. "I wanted to know what your true laugh sounds like," he told him flat-out before grinning wickedly, "And it sounded so good, I might just want to hear it again…"

"I thought so." Quicker than anyone of them had expected, Seto sat up and retreated behind Joey, firmly placing his hands on the other teen's shoulders.

"Aw, is Kaiba afraid?" Tristan teased.

"No, of course I'm not."

"He looks like he's dueling, if you ask me…" Ryou muttered, recognizing that particular facial expression.

"Dueling? Without cards? Ha!" Bakura laughed.

"Hold it right there!" Seto commanded as the thief prepared to lunge at him, "I play a magic card called… Puppy's Devotion! This card shields me from all attacks by redirecting them at itself!"

"What?!" Joey cried out.

For a split second, Bakura looked flabbergasted, but then he let out an evil laugh. "Aha, there's a collaboration with the enemy! Or we must follow the rules of dueling, whatever! Attack, I say!"

"Charge!" Tristan agreed and pounced on Joey. Once more, Ryou joined them, though he was rather the "sneaky" type. In any case, Joey soon was at their mercy, yet he made some brave attempts to fight back – when Seto took revenge on him from behind, however, he was trapped in a two-front war with no more hope left to fend them off long enough to catch his breath just a little bit again.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

"D'you think we should go see what's going on in there?" Malik asked with mild concern as he stared at the other room that was occupied by the gang.

"No, I bet Bakura's handling the situation well. Hell, he might even be responsible for what caused that noise in the first place. I trust him that it's nothing bad," Marik answered amusedly, "Watch." He went to the door and said loudly: "Are the gods on a rampage in there?"

Through the jumble of laughing voices, the one of Bakura answered: "Nope, we're at war!"

"Ah," Marik commented and shrugged at Malik. "See? Everything's under control."

"Okay. Go put on a shirt, then we'll find ourselves something to do."

The spirit returned to their room, and Malik heard Tea ask incredulously: "What's that noise? Have they gone barking mad or what?"

"Oh no," Marik told her casually as he put on a shirt, "They're just at war."

The brunette sighed. **Boys**… "I don't wanna know, I don't wanna know…" she chanted softly to herself as she turned to put on her socks. Yami nodded as if in agreement while Yugi muttered: "Oh my…" Marik and Malik just laughed, and hand in hand they ran off, looking for action or trouble, depending on one's point of view.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

"Jesus… I thought you guys would never stop…" Joey panted.

At some point during the war, he had slid off the bed onto the floor, but his change of location had done nothing to relieve him of the tickle torment. Now he was leaning against Seto's bed, and said brunet was laying on his side, letting his slender fingers play with the golden hair strands of his boyfriend, a small but very rapt smile on his face. Ryou was sprawled on Bakura's bed, his face red after having gotten a healthy dose of the "friendly torture" somewhere along the line. Tristan sat opposite of Joey in the same position as his friend. Bakura was the only one sitting upright; he kept looking at the spike that was Tristan's hair, and it was fairly clear that he was wondering whether or not he should tweak that hairdo just to see if it would spring back like a feather.

"We had to bring you down, and I could only declare the war to be over when that was the case," Bakura replied.

"Truce, then?" the blond asked.

"…Truce."

"I hope your curiosity has been satisfied sufficiently enough that you won't have a reason to attack me or any one of us again," Seto said.

"Yeah; I've never heard Kaiba laugh so much," Tristan agreed.

"The same can't be said of you, Taylor," the CEO retorted.

"Sorry, but I'm by far not as ticklish as you are."

"And **I'm** not at all," Bakura interjected proudly. It was true: multiple attempts to put him through the same torment had been made, but they had been in vain. The tomb robber really didn't have that weakness. "And in response to your hopes, Kaiba: yes, I'm satisfied."

"Good."

Behind the spirit, Ryou sat up and looked at his alarm clock. "Well, I'll go have a shower now…" His stomach grumbled a bit, and he sighed. "And get some breakfast before they clear off the buffet."

"Oh yeah, breakfast!" Joey exclaimed as his stomach made its voice heard as well, "Just to be sure: Seto, could you go ahead and pinch a couple of rolls for safe-keeping?"

"Always afraid that there won't be enough, aren't you?"

"Hey, breakfast time's almost over, and I don't want to take any chances that everything's gone by the time I come…!"

"Now you know how people who come after you feel," Tristan joked.

Joey pouted a bit, but Seto cheered him up quickly: "Run along and shower, puppy; I'll make sure that you won't starve."

"Yay! Thanks, Seto!" the blond said happily before jumping up and hurrying to get his clothes. Promise or not, he still wasn't ready to take a chance – not when it came to the issue of food!

"Swell, Kaiba. Save a few for me too, okay?" Tristan chimed in as he followed Joey.

"For us too! Come, Hikari, let's hit the showers – we can take one alone some other day…!" Bakura said eagerly as he dragged Ryou along.

Seto stared after them. "…Need I remind you that I'm not your servant?!" he called as he held the door open a bit longer. He hadn't even finished the sentence yet when the door to the showers closed. If he weren't Seto Kaiba, he would have pouted in that moment, but since that wasn't the case, he merely pursed his lips before going to the buffet to wait for them. _'Once and never again… I'm __**nobody's**__ servant!'_ he thought hotly. When his duty of keeping an eye on the supply of rolls was over, he didn't hesitate in repeating what he had wanted to say to them earlier; however, when the addressed people were so engrossed in eating breakfast, all he could hope for was that they had paid at least **a bit** of attention…

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Being forced to spend the day indoors (unless one didn't really mind the stormy weather all that much, like certain people did), they completely depended on the game room and the ice rink to make sure that they would be tired enough to stick to the agreed bedtime in the evening. Joey and Tristan were mainly busy with thinking about Friday, wondering whether Rex and Weevil would stick to the deal and keep things fair.

"They're sneaks; I don't trust them," Tristan said haughtily.

"I'm with you," Joey agreed, though in secret thinking that Rex was more likely to stay true to his word – at least he had even exchanged a few friendly words with them, unlike Weevil. "But how could we make sure that they'll be fair? I mean, we can't go put up cameras along the run… Seto, you're the referee, so how are you going to make sure that they won't break the rules?"

"I was thinking somewhere along the line of checkpoints, so to speak," the CEO answered, "You and your little friends would do anything for each other, right? Therefore, it would be highly likely that they would help out."

"You mean, use **them** as checkpoints?" Tristan concluded.

"Precisely. All they would need to do is wait until you and those two others have passed them, then they descend to the bottom of the hill and report to me. That way, I think we can be fairly sure that no one cheats."

"Brilliant! I'll go ask them later on!" Joey volunteered.

"The first one approaches already, puppy…" Seto muttered when he saw Bakura coming towards them.

"Hey Kaiba, can I have your computer for a moment?"

"Whatever for? I need it to work, and I doubt that you'd do it for me; not that I'd even allow that in the first place," was the suspicious reply.

"I want to go up to the… the…" The thief faltered as he tried to remember what Ryou had called it, that invisible net that covered the globe like a giant spider web. Ah yes –

"The Internet? In that case, the answer is **definitely** no," Seto said firmly.

"And if I ask nicely?"

"No."

"Darn…" Bakura appeared to be quite disgruntled and had already turned around to leave when Joey held him back:

"Hey Bakura, about Friday: could you help us out a bit? We'd need to make sure that nobody cheats…"

"I thought I overheard you telling you telling the little kid that **Kaiba's** the referee."

"He is, but he can't exactly split himself up to make checkpoints, can he? All you'd need to do is wait until all four of us have passed you, then you go down and report to Seto."

"Hmm… what's in it for me?"

Joey looked at him strangely. "…It's a deed of friendship, maybe?" he suggested.

"Sounds like something that Gardner would say." Bakura looked as if he had suddenly gotten a good idea. "I've got it! I'll do it if I can check out that net-thingy."

"No. No way. I already told you that I need the laptop for –" Seto began, but Tristan interrupted loudly:

"Give us a moment, Bakura, will you? Kaiba, we need to have a discussion in private…" He gestured for Joey to come along as well. Bakura stayed put, sensing that there was still an ever so small chance that he might get what he wanted.

"If you think for just one moment that I'll hand over my laptop…!" Seto hissed.

"Aw, c'mon, Kaiba, what're you afraid of? That he'll get your system infested with ads from porn sites? Or that he'd change your desktop picture to a collage of naked women?"

Seto looked disgusted at the thought. "Possibly… Or he might manage to format the hard drive, and even for you, it shouldn't take much imagination to realize that that would be quite a predicament for me."

"Wait, I've got an idea!" Joey told him, then called to the thief: "Bakura, would you go on that little 'expedition' on your own?"

"No, Ryou would show me what to do."

Joey smiled at Seto. "See? Ryou wouldn't let something like that happen."

"Why do you keep missing the point that it's my computer for **work**?"

"It's your own fault, Kaiba," Tristan said seriously, "After all; you're the one who brought it along, so it was bound to happen that someone would ask if they could use it once or something."

"Are you blind or have you deliberately failed to notice how important a computer is for me?" Seto asked dangerously.

"Then why can't you agree under the condition that you'd supervise him as well?" Joey suggested, praying that they would crack the wall of stubbornness soon.

"You're banging your head on a brick wall on this issue." Seto's reply demolished those hopes instantly. "For once, try to understand **my** point of view too."

Joey and Tristan sighed, realizing that they weren't getting anywhere and that it was for the best to end this verbal game of tennis.

"Sorry, Bakura, but –" Joey began, turning back; only to find that Ryou's darker half had gone.

"Guess he got fed up with waiting. I can't even blame him… Well, on with the game," Tristan sighed. Barely a few seconds later, he groaned as Joey hit a bull's eye, thus extending his lead even more.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

A while later, Seto decided that it was time to get some more work done. Joey and Tristan continued to play until they heard an indignant shouting from the corridor that led to their room:

"What are you **doing**?! Explain yourself! And put that away **now**!"

"Oh man…!" the two boys groaned in unison, then hurried off to their room. The reason for the conflict was instantly apparent: Seto was standing at Bakura's bed and looking absolutely livid. Said tomb robber was sitting there with Ryou and the two Egyptians. In front of him, the laptop was on the bed, and it was running.

"I told you that the answer is no!" the CEO fumed.

"Oh, don't be such a prick! It's not like I'm looking at anything **bad**…"

"You told me that it was okay! You lied to me!" Ryou exclaimed, looking taken aback.

"Damn, the sparks are flying…" Marik remarked as he and Malik backed up against the wall – after all, they were nothing more than visitors in this facility – and Bakura was now at a two-front war.

"Turn it off!"

"You're really looking for trouble, aren't you?"

"Someone's gonna explode… ten seconds to countdown…"

"Please calm down for a moment!"

"Could you quit getting on my case?!"

"It's your own fault!"

Joey tried to keep his calm as the arguments went left and right, back and forth and in all directions. He looked at the computer screen, where a video was still playing. It was some guy with a mike, and as far as he could tell, it was probably a stand-up comedian. Was this really worth all the fuss? His mind answered this question with "No".

"Shut the hell up!" he yelled.

Somehow, that sudden outburst got their attention, and they silenced. Particularly Bakura and Seto looked so angry that there might be murder sometime soon. Time to act quickly.

"C'mon, it would be a shame to mess up the time with this! Maybe it's both your faults, kinda… but just try and compromise! I mean, look, Seto, he's just watching some comedy thing!"

"Comedy?" the brunet repeated and looked at the screen, where the man had frozen in a pose after the video had come to an end. He was just about to say something when Tristan beat him to it:

"Dude, is that what I think it is?"

"Why, what do you think it is?" Malik asked.

"The guy who did the 'Lost Baggage' sketch? The ending looks the same…" (A/N: If you don't know this sketch, perhaps you should look at it first... type in "lost baggage" on YouTube - it's about 3.45 minutes long. And I really think that it is a scream! _-lol-_)

"Yes, that's correct," Ryou confirmed.

Tristan laughed. "That's hilarious! Could you play it again?"

"Taylor! Don't you start as well!" Seto growled.

"You'd crack up as well if you watched this! It's one of those things that you can watch again and again and again and again…!" He sat down next to the Egyptians. "Play that video!"

"**That's** what you needed my computer for? To look for videos of comedians?" Seto asked in disbelief.

"If you want to watch porn, just say so," Bakura told him.

"Really!" Again, he looked rather aghast.

"Let them watch it, Seto – I'm rather curious myself…" Joey added thoughtfully.

"Puppy, read my lips: I. Need. That. Computer."

"I **know** you do. Just chill out. I bet you'll get the computer back in a fine condition."

"And if I don't…"

"Then that'll be on my head."

"Oh no, you don't. This time, those who **really** are responsible should be the ones to blame, not you."

"Trust me," Joey insisted.

Behind them, the guy was saying: _"This… is what arrived."_ Right away, those who were watching him started laughing loudly.

"Why can't I resist you?" Seto wondered with a sigh.

"You mean…" Joey began.

"I'm not comfortable with the thought of leaving my computer in their hands, but I hope that you'll look out for it."

"Why don't you watch it with us?"

"No, I need to calm down first. I might go outside… and maybe go for another coffee while I'm at it," he answered.

"Caffeine-addict!" Joey grinned, poking him in the chest with a finger.

In a flash, Seto had grabbed the outstretched hand and used his other arm to pull Joey close to him in a tight embrace. "That's just me," he confirmed in a soft whisper, then leaned down a bit for a kiss (which he got, of course).

"And that's why I love you," Joey said quietly when they parted again.

Almost carefully, Seto removed the blond's other hand from his shoulder. "Enough of the sweetness now, puppy," he replied, though looking amused, "You go on and watch that movie. I'll see you later."

"Don't worry, that laptop's safe with me," Joey replied confidently.

_"I'll admit, I'll admit… if I'm completely honest: the first three times this thing went around the baggage carousel, I laughed as well!" _

Howls of laughter came from everyone who was sitting on the bed. Even Ryou was not as collected as he usually was as he leaned against Bakura's shoulder while the spirit gave himself a slap on the knee. "Oh, Blondie, you're missing one hell of a blast…!" he managed to say.

"Coming!"

Seto gave Joey's hands (which he was still holding in his own) a soft squeeze, then left the room without another word. Joey glanced once after his retreating form, then plopped down next to Tristan.

"So, could you show it to me from the beginning?"

"Sure! Here goes!"

It wasn't long before Joey was laughing just as loudly as everyone else, and when it was over, they spent a decent amount of time surfing the Internet, searching for similar things. Ryou knew quite a few funny pages, and it turned out that although his father was very rarely in America, he occasionally sent his son some funny things so he could have a laugh every now and then…

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

During dinner, Joey brought up the checkpoint matter, and just like Seto had expected, the others didn't hesitate in assuring him their assistance. It was also decided that Ryou would do the countdown, and they even decided who would pick up whom on the way down. Naturally, Bakura wanted to hop onto his Hikari's sled, but under one condition:

"The Pharaoh goes with someone else!"

"You don't need to tell me that; you'd probably get us both killed even though only intending for me to be the only victim," Yami said dryly. Bakura's evil grin was a confirmation in itself.

"Fine then, is Tea better?" Ryou asked exasperatedly.

Bakura contemplated this and devised a plan: he would have to get into the driver's seat of the toboggan, then he would be capable of taking any safety measures to ensure that they wouldn't have to deal with anything that had to do with the word "friendship" or the mere mention of that word until they were down the hill. "Yeah, whatever."

The rest of the evening was like any other, though Seto could finally be convinced to watch the baggage video as well – and even with him, it was a success, although he never laughed as loudly as they did. He was also glad to see that his laptop really was as good as ever: no cookies from dubious sites, no changed desktop picture or anything. Bakura pretended to be almost offended that the CEO had even thought that he might do that at all… Ryou's suggestion to go to bed soon thereafter because a good night's sleep was exactly what they needed before the race came all too soon in Bakura's opinion, and he came dangerously close to pouting.

"But we haven't played strip poker yet! No creepy stories, no pillow fights, nothing! When are we supposed to do all that?!"

"There are still two more nights to go after this one, so we'll still have time."

"We had better…!"

"Goodnight, everyone!" Tristan said loudly before turning out the lights. Even when it was dark, some grumbling could be heard from Bakura's bed. Luckily, the spirit was plenty busy with planning out the remaining nights to hear Seto mutter exasperatedly:

"Crazy tomb robber…!"

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

On Friday, the weather was cooperative once again and in the morning, the usual party of the skiers and sledders went to the hill in order to decide where to set up the human checkpoints. As they went to the lift, Joey claimed to have heard the hotel sigh with relief at their departure. This statement made Ryou become very skeptic about what Malik and Marik had been up to in their twosome time, but neither of them was willing to give an honest answer about that. The only hint they gave was that it **might** have had something to do with "playing hide and seek and bribing infuriated ladies not to tell anyone that male creatures had been in their bathroom".

"Bribing them? Impossible – you didn't have any money with you, I bet," Seto snorted.

"**We** don't, but **you** do…" Malik replied innocently.

Once again, a mask of anger distorted the brunet's handsome face. "If you're saying what I **think** you're saying…!"

"Just kidding. No, we swore to each other not to tell a soul about how we might have bribed them."

"And we shall never waver in that belief, so don't even **try** to get the information you seek," Marik declared grandly.

"Oh, quit babbling and get on the lift!" Tristan sighed. Marik's only reaction to this interruption was to puff out his chest importantly.

Around 12.30, Yami, Yugi and Tea joined them as well at the bottom of the hill. Now Seto would be the one to stay behind, playing his part as the referee.

"Good luck, Taylor – although you probably don't need it to beat that Underwood kid."

"Bug Boy will be a piece of cake, Kaiba," Tristan confirmed with a nod.

"I'm sure that you will be victorious, puppy, but it would be unfair not to wish you good luck as well," Seto carried on, turning to Joey.

"Thanks, Seto. I'll do my best."

"You certainly won't fail if you do that."

Joey nodded, eager to get on with it. Remembering how Rex had called him a loser fueled his anticipation even more.

"Hey Kaiba, catch!" a voice suddenly called, and a moment later, Seto was holding two jackets. The CEO looked up to see Bakura and Marik grinning at him. "So you can make an improvised finish line, sort of," the tomb robber explained, oblivious to the stares people were giving him.

"Are you –" Seto started to say, but was cut off by Ryou's exclamation of:

"What do you think you're doing? You'll catch a cold!"

"Nonsense, Hikari, we're hot-blooded," Bakura retorted and gave Marik a high-five.

"That's us!" the Egyptian agreed.

"Yes, we know you're tough, but you **know** how much you hate being sick…" Malik's voice trailed off.

"It takes more than a few minutes in cool air to make me sick!" Marik shot back. He knew that his lover was right, but he and Bakura had already guessed that no one else would be willing to take this step, and the situation required improvisation…

"I suppose this gesture deserves a thank you," Seto remarked.

"Forget about that. We got some time on your precious computer, so this is our kind of thank you – unless you'd prefer a hug and a kiss," Bakura joked.

Seto smirked. "No thanks."

Both Yamis showed him thumbs-up, then the group went to the lift while Seto made use of the jackets and created the finish line. Once that was accomplished, he stood right between the jackets, and while he watched the gondolas go up, it wasn't long before he was asked for the first time what he was up to…

When they were at the top, Joey and Tristan got a bunch more of good-luck-wishes, then the "checkpoints" went through the rather time-consuming process of positioning themselves on the run. This meant that the three of them who had sleds went all the way down and up again, and except in Ryou's case, some ways down again. Shortly after everyone was in place, Rex and Weevil showed up.

"So you did come," the insect-lover of the two said.

"If you thought we'd chicken out, you're crazy," Tristan huffed.

"Well, who knows? After all, there's no **way** that we'll lose…"

The pointy-haired teen narrowed his eyes. "You're gonna cheat, I know you will! Why don't you just hold up a neon sign saying exactly that?"

For a moment, it looked as if Weevil would stick out his tongue at him, but the short teen decided not to do that. Ryou spoke up:

"I don't know if those accusations are true, but keep in mind that it will be known if you cheat."

"Unless Kaiba has put up surveillance cameras, how so?" Rex asked, though he didn't sound quite as devious as Weevil did.

"Our friends are helping out, and you'll have to pass each of them on the way down." Ryou gave them a brief description of what the checkpoints looked like, then carried on: "They will go down after all four of you have passed, so Kaiba will be informed if one of you doesn't. And that will mean disqualification."

Weevil made a face, and once more Tristan believed to see proof that his opponent had really been planning to trick them, probably by going through the woods. Now, however, such a plan would be futile, for Ryou had deliberately not said exactly **where** the checkpoints were located. Rex didn't look half as upset as his friend did, and when Joey noticed this, he wondered why the dinosaur-fan even bothered to hang out with the other boy.

"So, if you're all ready, let's get started," Ryou suggested.

They nodded and lined up.

"Ready, steady, go!" the white-haired teen shouted the last part, and none of them lost a second to push off. He watched them go, then waited for a few minutes before beginning the descent himself.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Even before they reached the crevasse, Joey knew for sure that he loved this race, no matter what the outcome would be. This was all about going down at an unrestrained speed – they had been here enough times to appreciate the beautiful landscape around them, so he didn't need to bother with slowing down where there weren't any trees to block the view. The crevasse itself was his favorite part of the entire run; that long, straight and steep stretch… After that, though, they couldn't just go down like a maniac anymore. Of course, there were other skiers and sledders on the run, and now it was a matter of maintaining their speed and avoiding any collisions.

Shortly after the crevasse, a family was ahead of them, complete with two children, neither one of them older than Mokuba. Tristan was in the lead, closely followed by Weevil, but the second teen didn't make nearly as much effort to not appear as a slope terrorist and whizzed so narrowly past one of the children that it cried out, startled. Joey and Rex were neck-to-neck at that point, and as they passed the group as well, they heard the mother exclaim angrily:

"Well, I never!"

Simultaneously, Joey and Rex called over their shoulders: "Sorry, ma'am! Won't happen again!"

For a second, they stared at each other, and ahead of them, Tristan yelled:

"Man, you're such an ass!"

"I'm taking no chances!" Weevil spat.

"Dammit, he means business…!" Tristan growled and decided to call out to any other people they would encounter to get out of the way.

One turn later, they passed their first checkpoint, Bakura.

"Yeah, Taylor, that's it! A little faster, Blondie!" the spirit cheered as they rushed past him. He wasn't shivering and didn't even have goosebumps on his skin yet – still, he could imagine that Ryou would make a fuss over him once they met up again.

"How cute, you even need cheerleaders!" Weevil sneered as he caught up a bit more by cutting a corner narrower than Tristan.

"We didn't ask for him to do that! And you'd be better off if you don't let him hear what you just called him," Tristan retorted.

"Hmpf, yeah right…!"

After passing Malik and Yami, they still were quite close together. Tristan made no secret of his astonishment considering Weevil's skills. Joey was surprised too: he would have guessed that his friend would be ahead by a mile or something, but the Insect Champion held his pace quite well. He really was either pretty good or it was just due to the fact that they had to be considerate of the other people around them.

At the next turn, Tea came into view. She was hopping up and down a bit, rubbing her arms, but when she spotted them, she cupped her hands to her mouth and yelled:

"Watch out, guys, this turn's icy!"

"How do you know?" Tristan asked as they approached.

"Ryou noticed it shortly after dropping me off!"

"Oh. Thanks, Tea! …Holy shit, this really **is** ice!"

The brunette clasped her hands together in anxiety as she watched them fight to keep their balance on the ice. This was where speed was a disadvantage. Miraculously, they all managed to avoid sliding into the snowdrift at the edge of the turn. After the turn, they were in the shadowy part of the run, and the icy stretch reached further than they had thought it would, for it continued to be difficult to be in full control of the skis.

"You can't even brake on this stuff!" Joey exclaimed. He was ahead of Rex now, but he knew that he couldn't afford to fall down.

"Keep trying!" Tristan advised him.

The next turn was even worse than the previous one: it was just as icy, and this time there was no snowdrift to brake somebody's fall; only trees right at the edges of the path. Tristan and Weevil barely managed to avoid sliding into one of those trees – however, they couldn't stop themselves from getting just a bit into the deep snow.

"Shit!" they both hissed and hurried to step up to the run again and continue their race just as determinedly as before.

Joey had enough time to watch what they did and tried to copy the maneuver, but it didn't work out like he had hoped it would: he thrust out his hands and fortunately avoided a nasty collision with one of the trees.

"Ugh!" he grunted when he slammed sideways against the bark. He was quite sure that it would leave an imprint on his cheek…

"Look out!"

Somehow, he managed to turn around, only to find that Rex was in the same unpleasant situation; they would collide with each other. Joey did the only thing he could in that moment: he reached out, hoping to slow Rex down at least a teensy bit before the crash.

"Ow!" he groaned when the other teen bumped into him and roughly forced his body up against the tree again. For a moment, they both stood still as the shock passed. When that happened, Rex stepped back a bit and apologized:

"Oh… sorry, Wheeler. I didn't mean to…"

"S'okay. Damn this tree… on the other hand, we'd have tumbled down the hill if it hadn't been for it," Joey muttered, rubbing his left shoulder as they inched back up to the run.

"Are you okay?" Rex asked once he was up again, reaching out his hand to Joey, who gratefully took it.

"Yeah, sure."

"Um, thanks for… that…" Weevil's comrade said, looking somewhat abashed.

"Eh, what else could I do?"

"Nothing, for instance?"

"That wouldn't be me. I'm fine, just don't worry. Let's finish this fair and square," Joey proposed, looking all high-spirited again as if nothing had happened. Rex nodded, relieved, and they made sure that they were even before continuing.

Marik awaited them next, and even at a distance, Joey could tell that he had been worrying.

"Hey, what happened? What kept you?" the spirit called as they got closer.

"Just a minor accident! See ya at the bottom!" Joey told him, making a circle with his thumb and index finger as they sped past him.

Now quite far ahead, Tristan and Weevil had come to the final part of the run, the part that was in the open. They could see Seto standing at the finish line, and some people who were very curious and probably had nothing better to do were watching in the background.

"Well, it was a good race, you little punk, but I've got a date with the finish line, so I can't wait up on you!" Tristan called over his shoulder.

"It's not over till it's over!" Weevil protested.

"Dream on," the taller teen said nonchalantly, then used his poles to go faster and faster. Weevil copied his moves, trying to keep up, but it was no use: Tristan was the first to finish the run, and as usual, he stopped in that snow-whirling halt that Joey had been practicing all week.

"Yeah baby, I win!" he cheered as a dejected Weevil stopped close by.

"Well done, Taylor. Did Ryou send you off at different times?" Seto asked, keeping an eye on the hill.

"No… Hey, where's Joey?"

"That idiot probably managed to crash into a tree or something!" Weevil snarled dismissively. In private, he wondered if he was right and whether the same had happened to Rex – what else could explain the sudden distance between them and the two others?

"Watch your tongue!" Seto snapped, not liking that snide tone at all.

"Hey look, here they come!" Tristan remarked, pointing, then yelled: "C'mon, man, you can do it! Go, Joey!"

The blond and Rex were closer together than Weevil and Tristan, and it was excitement all the way to the finish – in the end, Joey won by a nose, and he stopped almost exactly like Tristan had.

"Yeah, dude, we're the best!" his best friend cheered and clapped him on the shoulder.

"That was so awesome!" Joey said happily and signaled his agreement by giving Tristan a high-five before taking off his skis.

"What held you up, anyway? Did that sneak try to cheat?"

"No, nothing like that…"

"Puppy, what happened to your face?" Seto asked concernedly, spotting the scrapes on the left cheek.

"Alright, now I can answer two questions at once: there was this very icy curve, and I had a little encounter with a tree."

"So Bug Boy was right?!" Tristan concluded, "He said that that might have happened…"

"Yeah, but it could have been worse, trust me."

"Does it hurt?" Seto inquired, his gaze lingering on the scrapes.

"Nah, it's not so bad. I'll just cool it off with a bit of snow," Joey assured him before punching the air enthusiastically with his fist: "But anyway, we won!"

"I'm very happy for you," Seto told him quietly before hugging him.

Just then, the checkpoints arrived as well. The jackets were used as a possibility to brake, and Tristan braced himself against the sled that carried Bakura, Ryou and Tea.

"Well?" Seto asked, noticing them.

"All clear, Kaiba," the trio answered.

"No one cheated."

"Saw 'em all."

"Alright, then I can officially declare that Joey and Taylor are the winners."

The rest of the gang jumped up and cheered loudly. Tristan didn't hesitate in basking briefly in his little triumph, but Joey excused himself, asking for a little talk with Rex. Weevil wasn't happy about this (he wanted to make a quick departure before someone would remember to call him Bug Boy in the face), but a glare from Seto made him drop his plans of interrupting and just dragging his friend away.

"What is it, Wheeler?" Rex asked a bit sullenly. He really wasn't looking forward to hearing the nickname he would be forced to accept, according to their deal.

"Look, I know what this was all about, but I think that in **your** case – and this is just between you and me – I'll resist calling you that name as often as your buddy will be called Bug Boy," Joey told him straight away.

"Seriously?"

"Yeah. Aside from the fact that you called me a loser, you weren't that much of a jerk compared to Mr. Sourpuss over there." Clearly, he was referring to Weevil being a sore loser.

"Hey, we agreed on that **one** nickname!"

"I just couldn't resist. How come you hang out with that guy, anyway? I mean, he's quite a pain, if you ask me."

Rex shrugged. "We have a lot in common. And neither one of us has many other friends, so we said at least we'd have each other."

"…Okay, I can see that. You should get going," Joey said.

"Mmh-hmm. By the way, thanks again for breaking my fall."

"No problem." They shook hands, then Joey winked. "See ya, Freakosaurus."

Rex narrowed his eyes in a playfully malicious way before nodding and adding: "And by the way, good luck… you know, you and Kaiba."

"Thanks," the blond smiled.

"C'mon, Rex, let's get out of here! Gah, I can't believe we lost…!" Weevil fumed, suddenly appearing at his friend's side.

"Yeah, let's scram."

They turned around and left. Joey, on the other hand, returned to his friends, where he and Tristan let themselves get celebrated a bit. Somewhere along the line, the brunet asked:

"What did you want to talk about with the Freakosaurus, anyway?"

"Oh, just a little private talk…"

Tristan didn't have any more of an idea what the talk had been about, but Joey knew that he came up with plenty of his own imaginations. And so he kept that knowledge to himself, for he also knew that his friend probably wouldn't understand why he had bent the deal somewhat…

* * *

(1) I bet you all can guess what song that is, right...? ;)

Feel free to give me feedback! I hope I can get back to this plenty of times even after school has started again - consider this a semi-warning... (although, there are only two-and-a-half more chapters I need to write, so I don't think there will be too long of a wait)


	27. Chapter 27

Here you go, another chapter. Somehow, it helps that I already have the ending (usually, that isn't the case when I write, but they say there's a first time for everything)... I hope I'm still keeping it up for your likings :)

(Random input: Geez, I hope this minor infection or whatever the problem my eyes are having will go away soon - I've been wearing glasses all week long, and I hate it, it makes the things on the screen look smaller than usual _-sigh-_)

**drowningsiren**: (response to both your last reviews) Hehe, so do I! Mom also says that sometimes I laugh like a witch :D Oh, I've never seen a catfight for real before (at least, nowhere where I was present), but I did once get into a physical fight with another girl (sort of... she bitch-slapped me and later teamed up with 15 other kids and beat the shit out of me, pardon my French)... What you describe sounds pretty nasty, though... I totally agree, I've often thought that about the world too. It's especially getting weirder and weirder these days (I mean, just look at some of the things people do now...) Whoa, really? Hmm... I drink coffee every day and am very grumpy when I can't have one (e.g. machine is broken etc.) _-lol-_ If I'd be doing what you did, our neighborhood would reach a whole new level of... well, I wouldn't exactly call it weirdness, but almost. At least; that's what I think - we moved here for peace and quiet, but there are more than plenty of times when that just doesn't seem to be possible anymore...

**RomanGoddess4eva**: Yay! I'm glad you like it that much, 'cause I find myself thinking more frequently that I might just screw everything up with a new chapter... but so far, mission accomplished, I'd say :D

**Arisa Akita**: Aw, that's okay, I'm just glad to hear from you again :) Glad you liked it... I'm making quite good progress with the last chapters, so it shouldn't take me too long to update (at this point, I do like to get a certain amount of feedback before posting a new chapter _-wink-_)...

**Solo's Orca**: Thanks. My brain is mush from so much vacation _-groan-_ God, school will be like another planet, and because I'll be busy catching up, I'm writing as much as I can (Mom probably thinks that I'm a vegetable by now)...

**dragonlady222**: Yeah, fairness totally rules. Oh yeah, I figured that he'd put up a fight at first, but eventually he'd give in. Hehe, I agree - I thought so from the beginning (and besides, dinosaurs are cooler than insects anyway _-lol-_).

**finalfantasys-child**: Hehe, if I had let them lose, you guys probably would've killed me :D No, seriously, Joey and Tristan are way better than Rex and Weevil in many ways ;)

**sweetchica55**: Glad you liked it... hope you like this one as well :)

**lukygirl**: Thank you very much for the compliment!

* * *

That evening, Ryou and Bakura vanished right after dinner, not willing to say what they were up to. Thinking that they probably didn't even want to know that, their roommates let them run off without any questions. The gang spent a fun-filled while in the game room, making minor tournaments out of the games. Of course, Seto challenged Yami to just about everything, winning at pool, losing at table soccer and scoring a draw at darts.

"Of all the times not to have my Duel Monsters cards with me…!" he sighed as he was once again filled with the hope that he could finally beat his rival.

"Well, there's plenty of time when we get back to Domino," Yami suggested.

"If only," the CEO replied, "I'm in for a business trip that will last for three weeks. I'm leaving on Wednesday."

"In that case, it might be wise to wait until you're back…" Yami decided, thinking that it be bad to crush Seto's hopes before the trip.

When they retreated to their rooms again, it was almost weird to be surrounded by peace and quietness due to Bakura's absence.

"I kinda wonder what they're doing, anyway. Forget that I said I didn't want to know," Joey remarked as he flopped down on his bed.

"Well, at least we can be quite sure that it won't involve anything like stealing or causing trouble otherwise. If he had gone with Marik, it would be different, but with Ryou…" Tristan replied thoughtfully.

Meanwhile, Seto noticed that he had missed a call – a call from Mokuba. When he called him back, Tristan grinned at Joey, immediately being reminded of cooties.

"Are you really sure that you don't have those little buggers?"

"Positive – and even if I would, you'd have them too by now."

Tristan pretended to be grossed out and dusted himself off. "Eew! How dare you infect me!" he said in a high-pitched voice to underline his taunting. Joey laughed and lunged at him; a moment later, they were engaged in a playful wrestling match.

"Sorry that I missed your call earlier, Mokuba… How are you?" Seto asked, watching how that play-fight came to be.

_"It's okay, Seto, I don't expect you to be reachable 24 hours a day. I'm fine, and you?"_

"What's wrong with your voice?"

_"Oh, that…" _A sniffling noise could be heard. _"I probably just caught a little cold, that's all."_

"In that case, I want you to lie down and get some good rest."

_"It's just a stuffy nose!"_ Mokuba groaned, _"I don't have time to be lying around…"_

"Why, are you having tests at school?"

_"No, but it's easier to keep up when I'm actually there instead of having others bring me the homework. By the way, you still haven't answered my question, big brother."_

"I'm fine too, Mokuba."

_"How did the race go? Did Joey win?" _the boy inquired excitedly.

"Of course he did, I never doubted that he would," Seto said, watching amusedly as the two other teens pounced on each other.

Mokuba giggled, then asked: _"Seto, are you two gonna get married someday?"_

The elder Kaiba's eyes widened a bit. "Don't you think it's a bit early to be thinking about that?"

_"I don't know. Some reporter asked me that yesterday or the day before yesterday."_

"Next time, tell him or her that it's way too early to be thinking about that and that I will pointedly ignore such questions," Seto told him.

Mokuba thought differently about that and was actually quite tempted to ask his brother which one of them would be wearing a wedding dress, but decided against it as he reminded himself that there was something else he wanted to get rid of. _"I'll tell them. Um… Seto, I was at the park yesterday with some friends, and… I __**think**__ I saw Joey's dad."_

Not having expected this, Seto was silent for a moment as he held his breath. It didn't take but two seconds for all his bad thoughts about the man to rise up once again, and some of that was audible in his voice as he replied: "I hope you kept a fair distance to that bastard!"

_"Don't worry, I did. He was on a bench… I don't think he was quite with it."_

_'He was probably drunk or worse – if it __**was**__ him…'_ Seto thought disgustedly. "What did he look like?"

Mokuba described the man as good as he could; he had to leave out the face, for the man's head had been bowed.

Seto snorted. That was him, all right. "God… He hasn't been near our house, though, has he?"

_"No…"_

"Good. Listen, little brother: if you see him again, I want you to walk away in the opposite direction instantly. It's bad enough that he hurt Joey, I don't want to have him hurt you as well."

_"Does he even __**know**__ me?"_

"I don't know, but I hope you won't take that risk."

At the head of Joey's bed, the blond and his friend had temporarily interrupted their little fight when they noticed the sudden grim expression on Seto's face.

"What's up with Kaiba?" Tristan wondered.

"I'm not sure. It must be really bad, though; I've never seen that look on his face when he was talking to Mokuba," Joey answered with a furrowed brow.

"Hmm… how about having a little thumb-war until he's finished? Then we can ask him."

"Sounds good."

"Listen, Mokuba, just remember what I told you. And please go lie down a bit, okay?"

_"Yes, big brother. I hope you'll enjoy the weekend."_

"I will. See you on Sunday, kiddo."

_"Yeah. Give Joey a hug from me, okay? A __**big**__ hug!"_

Seto chuckled. "It's as good as done."

_"Thanks. Bye, Seto!"_ Then the younger Kaiba hung up.

Seto went to sit next to Joey and hugged him tightly. "Mokuba asked me to give you a hug from him," he whispered into the other teen's ear.

"Ah. How is the kid?" Joey asked with a smile.

"He has a cold, but otherwise fine."

"Then what were you troubled by?" Tristan asked.

"He said he saw Joey's father in the park."

Tristan got a dark look as well. Joey was silent for a moment before asking hesitantly: "…He didn't do anything to him, though, right?"

"No, apparently he was just sitting on a bench. Zoned out or something, according to Mokuba."

While Tristan and Seto had a little talk (during which they realized how similar their dislike for the man was), Joey let his thoughts drift away. He hadn't thought about it in a while, but now he wondered how well his father was doing without having his son to look after him. He remembered when said father had been in a half-daze and had told him that he couldn't do it on his own anymore – of course, Joey had repeatedly tried to help his dad fight that hazardous lifestyle, but soon it had only gotten worse, right up to the point where he had seemed to be drunk constantly. And about three months after that, Mokuba had taken the first step in saving him from the daily fights with his old man, as he had taken to call him…

"Hey man, are you alright?" Tristan's voice suddenly pierced through his thoughts, and Joey returned to the present to find his friend snapping his fingers before his eyes.

"Sure, of course," the blond hurried to say, then abruptly changed the subject, not willing to talk about his father and make everything negative: "Say, shouldn't Ryou and Bakura be back soon…?"

Seto and Tristan looked at each other and silently decided to play along – if Joey wanted to talk about it, he would, whenever that would be.

"Maybe we should send out a search party," Tristan joked.

Just then, something thumped against the window, and the three boys looked up.

"What the hell was **that**?" Seto frowned.

"No idea…" Tristan was closest to the window, so he pushed the curtains aside, only to find the glass covered with snow. "Hey, that was a snowball! But what – Aah!" he exclaimed, startled, and jerked back when another snowball hit the window. While Seto and Joey amused themselves by the show, the other teen opened the window. "Hey, what's with the snowballs?!"

A familiar voice answered him: "I needed them to get your attention! Where's Blondie? We've got something to show you guys!"

"They're outside?!" Joey exclaimed, and he and Seto joined Tristan at the window.

Indeed: the two white-haired boys were outside. They stood side by side, as if to hide something. Ryou waved at them.

"Hi guys!"

"What are you doing out there? It's almost eleven!"

"We know, but we made you something," Bakura retorted, then he and his Hikari stepped aside.

The others stared. Instead of a snowman, they were looking at a trophy made of snow. It even had handles so it could be lifted up if that had been possible! On the front, their names had been written in the snow.

"Dude, that's wicked!" Tristan whistled.

"That looks so good; I don't even dare to think what your snowmen look like!" Joey agreed.

"C'mon and have a closer look, if you like it so much!" Bakura prompted him, and Joey complied, running to get his shoes.

"Excuse me, coming through…" he excused himself as he climbed out at the window. "So this is what you've been doing…" he remarked as he looked more closely at the snow sculpture.

"We just felt like doing it – after all, winning a race usually means getting a prize," Bakura explained.

"And it was fun to make it! We didn't even need a flashlight like we thought we would," Ryou added, smiling at the skies, where the waxing moon was indeed giving off plenty of light.

"Hey Kaiba, maybe you could take a picture of them or something!" Bakura called to the CEO.

Tristan grinned. "Good idea; after all, it isn't everyday that you get a snow trophy," he told the other brunet before going to get his shoes as well.

Seto saw no reason why he should protest, so while Tristan joined the others, he got his cell phone. It was one of the very seldom moments that he was glad to be able to take pictures with the device. The first picture was of Joey and Tristan only, but then they insisted that Ryou and Bakura should join them too ("After all, you're the creators of our award!").

When everyone was back inside again, it was shortly after eleven.

"I guess it's too late to play a game now," Bakura concluded.

"Yeah, but it's not too late for a creepy story," Tristan pointed out.

The spirit got very excited. "Oh, good idea! Can I tell one?"

"Please do, before you go ballistic!" Joey laughed, "But not the bogeyman, that's for kids…"

"Bakura's stories are always at **least** R-rated," Ryou said with a slight shudder as he went to turn out the lights, "All I ask is that you don't suddenly pounce on me in the dark."

"But your screams add such a great effect to the story, Hikari!" Bakura protested.

Ryou frowned, but that was only visible for a second before he switched off the light and plunged the room into darkness. Unseen by anybody, Bakura rubbed his hands with glee, then began to tell his tale.

None of them (except perhaps Ryou) had ever heard such a disgusting and really creepy story before. Their mild-mannered friend hadn't understated Bakura's skills in this particular category of story-telling: the tomb robber could provide most vivid descriptions of scenes like from a horror-movie, and he used his voice to strengthen the effects.

"And then he ripped him to bits – it sounded like this," Bakura said and started making all sorts of horrible noises, miming what it sounded like when bones were being chopped up or when the culprit rooted around in his victim's guts.

"Eew, dude, that's so sick!" Tristan groaned at that particular point.

"Ugh, I've lost any appetite I had before," Joey said in agreement, holding his stomach.

"Repulsive," Seto muttered, shaking his head a bit.

Ryou was clutching his covers and couldn't even say anything, though he would have to agree with all three statements.

Bakura just cackled wickedly, pleased with himself, and continued his story-telling, though Ryou occasionally needed to remind him not to raise his voice too much while mimicking terror – after all, they didn't want to attract late-night trouble with Mr. Davidson. After two extremely gory stories, he proceeded to tell one that was more likely to be in the category of "suspense", and he did a fantastic job of making it bone-chilling as well. By now, Ryou knew about one crucial element of those stories: Bakura would pounce on someone – preferably **him** – to provoke a shrill scream. And he could sense that once more, **he** would be the one who was supposed to provide that element. Trying not to make a sound, he inched over until he could get onto Tristan's bed. Luckily, the brunet just thought that his friend was scared and needed to hold onto someone…

Bakura grinned evilly as he reached the peak of his story. He loved the screaming part more than anything else, and he simply couldn't resist counting on his lighter half for that. He knew of Ryou's habits during his story-telling: the teen would sit on his pillow, clutching the covers, his brown eyes wide with fear. Oh, it was a perfect opportunity! The thief crept to the foot of his bed, looking like a cat that was ready to pounce on a mouse.

"And then…" he said quietly in a foreboding tone of voice, "She turned around… and said…"

Then he jumped, bracing himself for Ryou's scream – but it never came. Instead, he bonked his head against the wall.

"Ow! Bloody hell!" he hissed, holding his head and managing to roll right off the bed, causing him to grunt with pain.

"She said 'ow, bloody hell'?" Joey repeated incredulously, "Somehow, I figured that she'd scream…"

"Very peculiar," Seto said nonchalantly, smirking when he heard the thump as Bakura fell onto the floor.

"She **would** have screamed, you morons!" Bakura growled, sitting up on the floor and rubbing his throbbing head, "Hikari, where in the name of Ra are you?!"

"Right here, Bakura. Are you okay?" the gentle voice of Ryou sounded out, and a cool hand laid itself on his shoulder.

"What are you doing in Taylor's bed?!"

"I knew you would want to startle me, so I simply chose to avoid that. If you had listened to me, you wouldn't have an aching head now."

Bakura growled, and the others heard how he sat down on a bed again.

"So, how does the story end?" Tristan asked, unable to conceal his amusement.

"She screamed and met a most terrible death. The end," the spirit retorted curtly. He hummed to himself, then said: "Someone else has to take over, I can't think like this…"

"Or we could go to sleep," Seto argued.

"Hey, if we play cards tomorrow, you won't have an accident like this," Joey tried to cheer Bakura up.

"Mmh… yeah…" the tomb robber mumbled.

"I think Kaiba's idea is good, let's get some rest," Ryou spoke up and returned to his bed. Suddenly, he squeaked. "Bakura! Not so tightly!"

"If I can't jump on you, then I want to hold you."

"O-Okay, but don't suffocate me…"

"Thanks for the stories, Bakura, I've seriously never heard night-time stories like those before," Tristan said as he lay down.

"It's always a pleasure…"

Silence spread in the room, though a while later, Joey suddenly muttered: "Now, if only I could get those horrific squelching noises out of my head…" He wasn't at all surprised that Bakura sniggered maliciously.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

On Saturday, they let it all hang out as they pursued their chosen activities. Tristan innocently wondered whether his friends would dare to go on the T-bar, but they politely refused.

"I'm still in one piece, and I'm not about to change that," Seto explained.

"And I just don't feel like it," Joey added.

Tristan laughed. "I can see both your points, don't worry! Maybe some other time, then! Let's get back up that mountain again!"

They had another wonderful time, and when it was almost evening, they decided to return their rental ski equipment right then. Before that, though, Joey and Tristan couldn't resist having a short fencing match with the ski poles. Just for fun, Seto pretended not to know them in those moments. Although they were fairly exhausted from skiing all day long, Bakura made sure that his plans for the last night wouldn't be ruined, so in order to "wake them up again", he called a pillow fight, during which he performed the rather daring act of jumping all the way from his bed onto Joey's in a kamikaze attack. After that fight, they all were sweating, and in addition to opening the windows, the tomb robber declared that it was time for strip poker.

"I've been waiting for this all week long – now we'll see if I really can smoke your ass, Kaiba!" he said challengingly as he shuffled the cards.

The CEO merely shrugged, looking very self-confident. "Give it your best shot."

"Don't hold back."

"I never do."

Then they began to play – and before long, Joey was wearing nothing more than his boxers.

"Geez, it's almost **cool** now," he remarked with a shudder.

"If you lose again, you'll have to accept a bet," Tristan reminded him.

"Ha! I'm gonna win next time! And besides, I'm not scared!" the blond retorted enthusiastically.

One round later, though, he was proved wrong, and Bakura grinned evilly. "Jump out of the window and make a snow angel."

"Like **this**?!" Joey burst out incredulously, pointing at himself.

"Of course."

"Are you crazy? He could get sick!" Seto argued.

"He said he's not scared, now he can prove it," the spirit insisted stubbornly.

"Cool it, Seto, I'll do it. I have a strong immune system. But damn, it's gonna be cold…" Taking a deep breath, Joey got up and went to the window, where he paused for a short moment before climbing out of it. "Oh shit, it's cold, it's cold…!" the others heard him ramble when he had disappeared, and they gathered at the window.

"Go on, man, lie down!" Tristan cheered him on.

"Ugh, I wouldn't want to change places with him!" Ryou remarked, shaking his head decidedly.

Joey stalled a second longer, then proceeded to get it over with: he let himself fall back into the snow. He had prepared himself for the fact that it would get very cold very quickly, yet he couldn't help but cry out once he lay spread-eagled on the ground.

"Finish it, Blondie!" Bakura called out to him, and Joey grit his teeth as he hurriedly made a snow angel. As soon as he was done, he hastily stood up and bolted to the window, where the others quickly made way for him. Back in the room, he made a beeline to where the room service had put their fresh bath towels and wrapped his own firmly around himself. Shivering, he joined his friends again.

"Well, at least you're not hot anymore," Ryou said, making Bakura and Tristan snicker.

"No shit, Sherlock. But I prefer heat over the cold…" Joey replied. He turned to his boyfriend, who raised an eyebrow in the silent question of 'What?'. "Get him, Seto," he asked of him, nodding his head in Bakura's direction, "I wanna see him have to do something he won't like so much."

"Like what? I'm not scared of anything either!" Bakura laughed.

"We'll see about that," Seto snorted and promised Joey to do his best.

His best was good enough, for after a few more interesting rounds (and a bet each for Ryou and Tristan), Bakura would be the next victim of a spontaneous dare.

"Do your worst," the tomb robber challenged them, crossing his arms.

Now it was Joey's turn to grin almost maliciously. "Ryou, I gotta ask you something…"

"What, Joey?" the white-haired teen wondered and listened as Joey whispered something into his ear. "Why yes, I have it," he replied.

"Good." The blond pointed a finger at Bakura. "I dare you to do a karaoke of The Monkees' 'I'm a Believer' – dancing included."

Bakura's smug look vanished right away. "**What**?! Oh no…! Hikari, is **that** what he asked you? Come on, you know I hate that song, I only sing along with it when I happen to be drunk when it's playing!"

"To make things fair, you should do it, drunk or not," Ryou argued.

"I did the snow angel, now you do the karaoke!" Joey insisted.

Quite unlike what he had said earlier, Bakura griped and groaned, but he couldn't get around it. Ryou got his mp3 player and Bakura's headphones, for they could provide a lot more volume than his own. His Yami was already red in the face to start with, and that blush darkened remarkably when he gave in (after all, he hated nothing more than getting called a sore loser or a coward). Half of his singing was drowned in his roommates' laughter, and in his opinion, the song couldn't be over quick enough. Soon after that, they went to sleep for the last time in the resort…

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

On Sunday, they left around one pm. Although the ride back was just as fun as when they had gone to Ski Beech, Joey could barely wait to be home again, for Seto had assured him a most delightful night.

"You won't forget it too soon, I'm sure," Seto said confidently, giving Joey a suggestive look.

"Did you **have** to say that? It's seven more hours till we're home, I'm not gonna make it…!" Joey whined.

"The way I know you, you'll manage to distract yourself easily enough. Oh look, isn't that an eagle?" he suddenly said, pointing out the window (as they had agreed a week ago, it was his turn for the window seat).

"An eagle?! Where?" Joey asked eagerly, leaning over and almost flattening his nose against the window. Seto made no effort whatsoever to shoo away the body that was practically smack in his face. He smirked when the blond pouted and retreated halfway: "Aw, there's no eagle there! You said that on purpose, didn't you?"

"Maybe," Seto answered with false innocence.

"Why do you always need to prove your point like that?" Joey sighed.

"It was also for your own benefit, puppy."

"Hmm… or maybe you just wanted to have me on your lap," Joey teased, nudging Seto's shoulder with his fist.

"Yes, perhaps… and even if I didn't, it is a nice side-effect."

"In that case, you'll get a lot more of that so-called 'side-effect' tonight," Joey retorted slyly.

"Now look, you're doing the same like I did just a minute ago."

"I'm only fighting fire with fire."

Seto shook his head, then gave Joey a quick kiss before retrieving the magazine he had brought along in the computer bag with his laptop in order to have another go at the "Evil" Sudoku. Joey watched him for a while, wondering every time the brunet wrote a number in one of the fields how on earth he had found that out. Soon, though, he decided not to let the numbers poison his mind any longer and joined the others for a game of charades (once again, Ryou provided the paper). Before long, everyone had joined in, including Seto, who supposed that he was unable to solve the Sudoku because he either wasn't throwing himself into it properly or the "Evil" level simply was very damn hard to solve. And since they had once again occupied the seats that faced each other, they had plenty of room for whatever gestures were necessary to explain certain phrases.

When half the driving time was over, they were watching Tristan act as if he were dying (after having a long whispered discussion with Bakura because he obviously hadn't known how to pantomime the given phrase). He had mimed coughing and dizziness and such, but always shook his head to what his teammates cried out.

"Flu!"

"Bronchitis!"

"Pneumonia!"

"Damn, what **is** that supposed to **be**?" Joey wondered exasperatedly.

"Back to point zero: he is sick, that's for sure," Yami said.

"And probably dying," Marik agreed, "But what else didn't we say yet?"

Ryou glanced at Bakura, who looked incredibly smug. "I bet Bakura wrote that down."

"In that case, it's something particularly horrible," Yami said with a scrutinizing look at the tomb robber, who just stuck up his nose in a mocking gesture.

"It's not some ancient Egyptian plague that we've never heard of before, though?" Joey asked skeptically.

"No, I don't think so, that would be unfair," the spirit answered.

Marik said nothing upon learning that Bakura had come up with the phrase and studied Tristan's behavior even closer.

Tristan looked as if he were ready to crack and made a weird gesture at his neck, as if it were swelling. His teammates only stared, and even in the other team, not everyone was getting it.

"Do you give up yet?" Bakura asked with a grin.

"Well, **I** have no more ideas…" Joey replied, shaking his head at his best friend. The others shrugged in agreement – except Marik.

"Wait a moment…" He beckoned Tristan to do something more, who drew a cross in the air and then pointed to the skies.

"If you have a suggestion, say it now," Seto told them.

"Marik, do you know it?" Ryou asked.

"I think so…"

"Let's hear it," Bakura said, looking interested.

"Is it that fictional disease? What's it called…? C something…" The Egyptian thought hard for a moment, then snapped his fingers. "Captain Trips!"

"Eeeeeeeeh?!" his teammates exclaimed, nonplussed.

Bakura didn't look half as grumpy as one would have guessed him to. "So you did get it. I thought you would; I just wondered how long it would take you."

"What the hell is Captain Trips?" Joey demanded.

"An extremely deadly disease, also called the superflu," Bakura replied.

"Hey, I said flu!" Joey protested.

"Yes, but I wanted to hear '**super**flu' or the correct name of the disease," the spirit corrected him.

"Where did you get that from?" Yugi asked.

"Have you never read 'The Stand'?" (1)

"The Stand?" Tea repeated.

"A book by a guy who writes awesome stories. I don't read much, but he's my favorite," the thief answered happily.

"Stephen King. Oh, I should've guessed you'd take something out of those books," Ryou sighed, "You have a strong liking for creature-features and stuff like that."

"You know me well, Hikari, but not well enough. You did pretty good, Taylor, by the way."

"Thanks. Man, it's hard when you've never even heard the phrase before..." Tristan said, sitting down again.

"At least we got the point!" Joey grinned.

"Check," Yugi said, noting that, "Kaiba, you're next."

Seto picked one of the pieces of paper and stared in disbelief at his phrase. "…You **can't** be serious."

"Rules are rules, Kaiba. You can't get out of it," Malik told him.

"I'll feel like a fool."

"You think **I** didn't, pretending that I was dying of a disease I've never even heard of before?!" Tristan asked huffily.

Seto tried to stall as long as he could, but finally the protests became too much, and with great reluctance, he took up the challenge – and he couldn't help but turn red as the gang cracked up while watching him pantomime Superman (he tried not to move so much, and at one point he was almost sure that his teammates **deliberately** weren't releasing him of the task)…

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

A lot of games and laughter later, they were back in Domino, and to the relief of most, the bus driver even chose certain locations to stop, and then the students who lived close by would get off (the alternative to them all being dropped off at school).

"See you in a week," Mr. Davidson said to Joey and Seto as they got off at one of the first stops. Both boys ignored the numerous wistful and badly stifled sighs of their female classmates.

"Thanks, Mr. Davidson! This was such a great idea!" Joey said brightly, shaking the man's hand enthusiastically. The teacher was glad that the week had been such a great success in the students' book (after all, he was surrounded by happy faces) and beamed at Joey.

"I'll be on a business trip, so you won't be seeing me for at least three more weeks," Seto said as he briefly shook hands with the teacher as well.

"Oh. In that case: good luck on your trip."

"Thank you."

"Bye guys!"

"See you next week!"

"See ya around, Kaiba!"

They waved at the rest of the gang, then got off the bus, and after getting their luggage back, they could finally head back to the mansion.

"Alright, puppy, I know you can barely wait anymore, but I'd be grateful if you'd have a bit of patience anyway – I first want to see how Mokuba's doing."

"Oh yeah…" Joey remembered being told that the kid had caught a cold. "No problem. Mokuba's first." When they walked through the doors, he couldn't resist yelling: "We're home!"

"Seto! Joey! You're back!" Mokuba came bolting from the living room, and Seto and Joey both raised an eyebrow: the boy's voice sounded much worse than it had on the phone.

"I'm glad you're back! How was it?" Still, he sounded just as energetic as always, and his joy was mirrored in his eyes.

"Hi Mokuba. Gee, you really don't sound so good. Guess that little cold of yours has gotten stronger, hmm?" Joey asked, smiling fondly at the younger Kaiba as he knelt down and tousled the hair. Beside him, Seto bent down as well and laid a hand on his sibling's forehead.

"Hello little brother. Did you do as I told you? Did you lie down and take it easy?"

"Well… more or less…"

Seto sighed. He knew that Mokuba didn't necessarily like to keep his bed, so he could be fairly sure that the youngster might have made some attempts that hadn't lasted very long.

"What you need now is warmth and relaxation. C'mon, let's get you to bed," Joey said.

"But I'm not tired yet –"

"That's okay. You shouldn't go to school tomorrow anyway, if you ask me."

The boy looked away, and Joey chuckled. "Hey, I'll be here to look after you. After all, I still have a week of vacation."

"And I'll be here tomorrow as well," Seto told him.

"How come, big brother?"

"…Let's just say that I have something important to do tonight and won't be feeling much like going to work tomorrow," the elder answered (once again underestimating his brother's cunningness).

Mokuba pretended to be innocent. "Oh, okay!"

"Here's what we'll do: you put him to bed, and I'll bring him something warm," Joey suggested to Seto, who nodded and stood up again, gently grabbing his brother's hand. "Do you like tea, Mokuba?"

"Eew…" The raven-haired teen made a face.

"A bit of soup, then? Is that– Whoa, where's a tissue?" Joey asked hurriedly when he saw Mokuba screw up his face like one tended to do before a sneeze.

"In the –" Kitchen, Seto had wanted to say, but it was too late:

"Achoo!" Mokuba covered his nose with his free hand as he sneezed; which was a good thing, for when it was over, he mumbled: "Um… I'd rather not lower my hand just now…"

"Be right back," Joey said and ran off to the kitchen, figuring at if he wouldn't find tissues, there would be household paper. Luckily, he spotted a box of tissues on the table, and he brought it back to the two brothers. Grateful for that, Mokuba took one and cleaned the mucus off his hand.

"Come, Mokuba, time to get some rest," Seto told him and let a hand rest on his sibling's back as they went upstairs while Joey went to fix the soup he had promised.

Not long thereafter, Mokuba was happily spooning the soup, making it clear how much he had missed Joey's cooking. He was feeling very content now anyway: he wasn't alone in the house anymore, Seto had tucked him in, and the remote control had been placed on his bedside table alongside the box of tissues. Everything had been arranged that unless he needed to go to the bathroom, he wouldn't have to get up tonight anymore.

"You think you'll be okay now?" Joey asked.

"Sure. You guys just go ahead and… 'sleep well'," Mokuba answered with a wink. _'They're up to __**something**__, and if my guess is correct… It almost __**must**__ be; why else would they arrange everything so that I technically wouldn't need anything else until tomorrow…?'_

"If you say so… Goodnight, Mokuba. See you tomorrow," Seto said, caressing the boy's hands briefly (and wondering if his brother had somehow caught on to their plan, hence the wink).

"Sleep tight," Joey wished him.

"You too," Mokuba replied with a nod, then waved at them again when they were at the door before turning on the TV (and turning it up a bit just for good measure).

"Come now, puppy, it's time to do what we've been waiting for," Seto spoke in an elated voice as they walked off towards his bedroom.

"I'm with you," Joey purred, holding his hand tightly.

The very instant the door closed behind them, they kissed passionately, and from then on they just let themselves go as they took their relationship another step further…

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

The next morning, Seto woke up to find a mop of blond hair taking up his entire field of vision. He blinked, then took a moment to simply watch the other's shoulders rise and fall with a steady, deep breathing.

"Puppy…" Seto murmured and gently began to caress the other teen's shoulder.

Joey shifted slightly, then rolled over onto his back and smacked his lips a bit before relaxing again. In response to that, Seto lightly kissed exactly those lips before turning around to look at the time. Almost ten am. That was quite late for him – on the other hand, he thought, the things he usually did when staying up late weren't nearly as exhausting as what had happened last night… Smirking at the thought, he stretched a bit before deciding that while he waited for Joey to wake up, he ought to go check on his brother. And so he put on a pair of boxers plus a bath robe, then went to Mokuba's room.

The TV was running quietly in the background while Mokuba was busy blowing his nose. A decent amount of used tissues lay discarded in the waste bin next to his bed.

"Good morning, Seto," he said with a snuffle before throwing away another tissue.

"Hello Mokuba. Did you sleep well?"

"Yeah, though I couldn't breathe through my nose at all when I woke up. But it's better now…" He reached out for another tissue. "Perhaps you shouldn't come so close to me as you did yesterday; I don't want to make you sick so shortly before your trip."

"That's very considerate of you, but when was the last time I was sick?" Seto asked as he entered the room.

Mokuba made another attempt to unclog his nose as good as possible, then shrugged. "Ages ago?"

"Precisely." As Seto sat down on the bed's edge, he quickly glanced at the TV (which was featuring an episode of a cartoon, as usual), then carried on: "Therefore, you don't need to worry about that, okay?"

"I guess you're right." He looked at his older brother expectantly. "You gotta tell me everything, Seto! How was it?"

"How was what?"

Mokuba laughed. "The whole week, silly!"

Realizing that he had almost made a faux pas with his last question, Seto secretly heaved a sigh of relief, convincing himself that Mokuba thought that he was merely still a bit sleep-dazed, perhaps.

"…Of course. Well, Taylor had to teach me and Joey how to ski in the first place, and it wasn't long before I had my first – and thankfully **only** – encounter with a 'slope terrorist', as Taylor called him…" Seto began, and as usual when he was talking (preferably when it was about such recreational topics rather than business), Mokuba took no more notice of what he had been occupied with previously; even his treasured cartoons were no exception.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

About half an hour later, Joey rubbed his eyes one last time as he headed for Mokuba's room; he figured that that was just about the one place where he would find Seto under the circumstances that the brunet wasn't at work and Mokuba was sick. He peered into the room to see the boy listening with rapt attention to his brother:

"…so you can probably imagine what a 'delightful' welcoming committee that was: a quartet of self-declared soldiers waiting to torment you after coming back from a simple trip to a restaurant for some coffee…" Seto was saying at that moment.

"Oh, was it that bad?" Mokuba asked with an amused grin.

"It was for him, yes; at one point, I thought he was gonna die," Joey answered right away, leaning casually against the doorway.

The two brothers looked at him, and Mokuba exclaimed happily:

"Good morning, Joey!"

"Hi kiddo. How are you today?"

"Having a bit of a hard time with my nose, but otherwise good. And you?"

"As good as can be, I'd say. So, you're in the middle of telling him about our little war episode on Thursday… mind if I help you?" Joey asked, walking over to Seto.

"Not at all. But first… Mokuba, I'll just go get a coffee, I'll be right back."

"Okay! Um… Joey, could I have a bit more of your soup, if there's any left?"

"Sure, sport! We'll be back in a jiffy!" the blond answered before he and his boyfriend left the room.

In the kitchen, Joey put the rest of the soup in the microwave while Seto got himself his coffee. While they waited for the microwave to finish, the elder Kaiba embraced the other teen and whispered sensually:

"So, did I promise you too much, puppy?"

"Not at all. Last night was wonderful," Joey replied and nuzzled his neck.

"I couldn't agree with you more," Seto sighed.

"Seto, I love you so much… I wish you wouldn't have to go." As he said this, Joey held him tightly.

"I love you too. But it can't be changed…"

"I know. It's just wishful thinking," Joey admitted before they kissed. It was passion from the very start, and they got lost in their own world until the microwave started beeping loudly.

"Mmh… we mustn't keep Mokuba waiting…"

"Sure, but you gotta let go of me first…"

Reluctantly, Seto did, and they returned to Mokuba's room. As if he could see exactly how much the sparks were flying between them, the youngster was beaming with wild joy, and a large part of that never left his face as he continued to listen to them talk about the previous week. When they told him about how they had played charades, he laughed when he heard about what Seto had needed to pantomime.

"Big brother, could you do it again? For me?" he pleaded.

"Doing it once was bad enough," Seto protested while Joey snickered, "Don't make me do it again…"

"Hey, I've never seen someone mime Superman before!"

"Mokuba, please have mercy on me! Ask Joey, he'd surely strike all sorts of poses!"

"Seriously?! Joey, would you do it?"

Just as Seto had expected, the blond complied instantly. "Sure!"

He began to pantomime, and the Kaiba brothers enjoyed their private little show. Joey did the job very well; he even mimed the cape that billowed behind him as he soared through the skies at super speed…

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Too soon for their liking, it was Wednesday, and when it was almost noon, Seto departed for the airport. Mokuba wanted to accompany him, but the elder insisted that he should stay in bed to recover some more. His tone of voice made it clear that he wouldn't tolerate protest, so his sibling was left with no other choice but to bid goodbye from his place in bed.

"You can go if you want to, Joey; I'll manage all right," he had assured the blond, who had been debating whether or not he should go along.

After the check-in, Joey stayed with Seto right up to the passport control.

"Well, this is it. See you in three weeks, puppy," the brunet said as they went aside a bit to say goodbye.

"Yeah, see you then." For a moment, Joey just stared at him, then he added wistfully: "Man, I already miss you!"

"Same here." Other than Joey, Seto was more reserved when it came to showing affection in public, but at this moment, he made a little exception: he hugged the other teen comfortingly. "Keep in mind, though, that it's only three weeks. It could be much longer – half a year or longer still, for example."

Joey winced. "I don't want to think about that!"

"At least not **now**, you don't. But someday you will have to," Seto whispered, and he felt himself being pulled even closer. Briefly, he ran his fingers through the untidy blond hair. "Remember, I'll call you."

"I know. You'll call when there's time," Joey replied, staring at the floor as he savored the moment.

They stood like that a little longer, then Seto drew back. "I must get going now. Goodbye, Joey."

"Before I say the same… may I kiss you?" the other boy asked quietly.

The CEO looked around quickly, then answered: "Alright, but make it… you know…" He made a gesture that said to take it easy.

Joey nodded – all he had wanted was permission – then gave him a fleeting and tender kiss, feeling Seto return it in the same fashion. "Bye, Seto," he finally said.

The elder Kaiba nodded, then turned away and went to show his passport. When he had passed the control point, he looked back to see Joey wave at him. In response, he raised a hand for a second before continuing on his way. After he disappeared from sight, Joey sighed, then shuffled off to go back home to Mokuba.

* * *

(1) Good book - kinda freaked me out at one point (and I got a nightmare from one of the pictures), but really a good read!

As usual, I appreciate feedback (hint, hint) ;)


	28. Chapter 28

Welcome to the second-to-last chapter of this story! Yes, all things must come to an end (good or bad things, whatever)...

I admit that I wrote this chapter fairly quickly, so I dare not think about its value - I'll leave it all up to you! It surely isn't one of the "better" ones, but I just had to "get rid" of a few things before the final chapter! Anyway, to hell with my rambling, and on with the story! Enjoy (I hope)!

**Arisa Akita**: Hehe, I was listening to some really soppy songs when I wrote that part, perhaps that's the reason why it turned out like that :D Oh, I managed that? Good, I was kinda thinking that I wouldn't manage to keep that up. Well, here goes...

**Tsubame**: Wow, du warst mit dem Lesen echt schnell! Es freut mich natürlich riesig, dass es dir so gefällt :) Na ja, inklusive diesem Kapital sind noch zwei übrig... Find ich auch, sie sind das absolute Traumpaar meiner Meinung nach (und ich bin wahnsinnig stolz auf die vielen Bilder der beiden, die ich auf dem Internet gefunden habe _-grins-_)! Man wünscht sich doch wirklich, es gäbe effektiv Episoden im Fernsehen, die man sich dazu anschauen könnte, oder?! _-quietscht bei dem Gedanke-_

**Solo's Orca**: Thanks! I should, too, but I wanna finish this before I have to deal with spending fours hours total of traveling back and forth to and from school every day -.- Hehe, reading fanfiction beats homework any day :D This chapter will answer your questions... (an answer beforehand to your second one: kinda...)

**RomanGoddess4eva**: Agreed, but it'll be alright ;) I'm very happy that you liked that chapter, so here's the next one...

**dragonlady222**: They do? I'm lucky that my Dad is a SK fan too (and my brother, kinda) - he always encourages me to read those books ("Christine" is another favorite of mine); but Mom thinks they really are freaky. It was fun to write about Bakura - ah, he only had "good" intentions ;) Yeah, I know, but Joey's there for him; and as for Seto, as he said, "it's only three weeks" (though I know I'd be exactly like Joey, I wouldn't want him to leave either). And about the dad... well, just read and see :)

**sweetchica55**: Yeah. don't we all...? _-grin-_ Well, there's only more chapter after this one, but I hope you'll be around for that one too. And thanks for the compliment, I'm very honored!

**petalpixie**: Hehe, I figured that that might be kinda humorous ;) Glad that you liked it and hope that you'll stick around for the last chapter as well :)

* * *

Thanks to Joey, Mokuba soon was doing a lot better, though he tried to get around taking medicine whenever he could. Soon after Seto's departure, the blond had bought something new in a pharmacy. Mokuba looked aghast the yellow stuff in the glass that Joey brought him as he stirred it with a spoon.

"Eew, what's that?"

"Something that's very good to help you fight that cold. I asked the lady in the store, and she recommended it."

"What does it taste like?"

"I dunno," Joey shrugged, then simply sipped the medicine. Mokuba made a face – he hated to try something before knowing what it was. The older teen licked his lips. "Hey, this stuff's good! Tastes kinda like lemon juice!"

"Really?"

"I wouldn't lie to you. If you'll take it, we'll go to the arcade on Saturday, okay?"

All skepticism vanished from Mokuba's face, only to be replaced with eagerness. "Cool, deal!" Surprisingly quickly, the glass was drained; a moment later, the boy frowned. "Not bad, but it has a nasty aftertaste."

"That's what chewing gum is for," Joey grinned, "The medicine's not the only thing I got in the pharmacy…"

"Yay!" Mokuba cheered and gladly accepted the stick he was offered. Soon, a fruity taste had replaced the medicine's aftertaste, and it wasn't long before the younger Kaiba was making bubbles with the gum (warning Joey that Seto really hated that, hence chewing gum was strictly forbidden wherever he worked).

By Saturday, Mokuba had made an almost complete recovery, and Joey went to the arcade with him. They chose to walk, but soon the blond looked around uneasily.

"Um… is it just me, or are we being followed? Or watched, at least?"

"That's very likely – you know, now that Seto isn't here, the reporters watch **you**. I bet they're noting whether your hair is untidy or not and so on, so you might find yourself in the 'Hot/Not' section of a magazine."

"What kind of life is that: hanging around all day, following people around, paying attention to their style… Pff, not for me."

"My thoughts exactly!"

When they were almost there, half a dozen reporters came at them.

"Joey! Joey! Over here!"

"Is it true that your father does drugs?"

"When's the wedding going to be?"

Joey held up a hand to shield his eyes from the photoflashes. "Hey, cut it out!"

"Aren't you worried that Seto Kaiba might betray you while he's away?"

This was where Mokuba cut in: "Ladies and gentlemen, could you **please** stop with the questions? Let us go to the arcade like normal people and quit badgering us, otherwise you might find out that not only Seto knows how to get some peace and quiet!"

"The sweet, innocent Mokuba Kaiba: more similar to Seto Kaiba than most people think?" one of them imagined a new magazine headline, a rather faraway look on his face.

Mokuba rolled his eyes and grabbed Joey's hand. "C'mon, Joey; leave it to them if they'll heed my warning."

"I guess it's good that I didn't answer any of those questions…"

"Yes, that's your best guess. You know, I think I recognized one of those guys, I think he's from a magazine for teens… he asked me a couple of things, and I found out that he twisted the answers a bit. That's when I decided to choose very carefully whose questions I would answer. If you had answered them, they probably would have made an incredibly corny story out of it."

"Sheesh… Thanks for interfering, champ."

"No problem."

They played every game at the arcade at least once (three guesses who won most of them), and when it was time to go home, Mokuba asked:

"Can we take the car home?"

Joey raised an eyebrow. "You sound like you've got a reason for that…"

"Yeah, can we go through the car wash?"

"…Is this some hobby I've never heard of?"

"Not a hobby, I just like it," Mokuba answered with a shrug.

The other teen was speechless for a moment, then complied. "Sure, why not? I remember that when I was little, I used to be kinda scared of those twirling thingies…" (1)

While the car was getting washed, Mokuba wondered: "If you would have **had** to answer those questions, what would you have said?"

"Hmm…" Joey hummed to himself as he thought that over. "What was it that they asked…? Ah yes: I'm **not** worried about Seto betraying me, that's just stupid… A wedding? Heck, we're not even 18 yet, we'd have to wait anyway… and my old man doing drugs? Nah, I doubt that. Alcohol, but not cocaine or stuff like that."

"You know, I just can't help but wonder if you and Seto **will** marry someday…" _'Personally, I hope you will!'_

"All in good time, kid. We'll see," Joey replied casually. Once again, Mokuba decided **not** to ask about the wedding dress…

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

On Sunday (which happened to be Valentine's Day), Seto called for the first time since he had left. Joey was very curious to hear everything about how it was in Germany; Seto told him that he hadn't actually seen much of it yet, but that he would go do a bit of sight-seeing when they would get three days off somewhere along the line. The CEO was very glad to hear that Mokuba was better again, and when they finally got around to ending the call, he did so by teaching Joey a little German phrase he had apparently picked up specifically for the special day:

_"Allow me to put things in different for this… __'occasion': Joey, ich liebe dich."_

"Wow… that sounded kinda weird…" the blond replied thoughtfully, not able to recall when he had last heard something being said in German. "Ich liebe dich," he repeated. _'Man, my voice sounds weird when I talk like this!'_

_"You probably should have added an 'auch' at the end of it,"_ the brunet pointed out.

Joey merely laughed. "Details, Seto, details…!"

When the weekend was over, it was time for school again. The big day for the students was Wednesday – then they would get to know the results of their mid-term tests. Because Seto couldn't be there, Joey took his report card for him. He and the gang agreed to have a "moment of truth", namely to have a look at the same time. When school was over, they got their cards, then gathered outside and finally satisfied their curiosity.

Ryou went about the whole thing rather calmly until he saw his grade in PE. "Oh dear Lord!" he cried out, "A… A…!"

Bakura peered over his shoulder. "Hikari, what are you stammering about?"

"Bakura, you're the best! Look at my PE grade!"

The tomb robber's face lit up like a garland of Christmas lights when he saw it. "All right, so I **did** get the A!"

"Thank you, thank you so much!" Ryou hugged him vehemently in addition to a kiss, to which Bakura responded most eagerly. Almost at the same time, Malik was thanking his Yami as well for the straight 'A'.

"I scraped a C plus in physics! Success!" Tea chirped happily.

"I told you that your efforts would pay off," Yugi told her (remembering how much time they had invested in learning for that test) and blushed when she wrapped her arms tightly around him.

"That's what I'm talking about! More improvements than declinations," Tristan said in acknowledgement after quickly scanning his grades. He turned to Joey, who was biting his lip a bit. "Hey man, won't you look as well?"

"I dunno…"

Tristan shook his head. "You looked at Kaiba's grades first, right?"

Slowly, Joey nodded.

"Let me guess: A's all the way?" More nodding. "Just look, you won't have D's everywhere," he encouraged his friend.

"…Okay, here goes…" Hesitantly, he peeked at his grades with one eye. C plus (biology)… B (english)… C minus (chemistry; well, he hadn't expected it to be good)… Suddenly, he froze, his eyes glued unblinkingly at one spot.

"…Joey?" Tristan wondered, poking the blond; but he got no response. "Dude, talk to me…!"

"Look…" Joey squeaked feebly.

"At what?"

"…Math…"

Curious, Tristan obeyed, and for a moment, he froze as well, though quickly snapping out of his daze. "Hey guys, you won't believe this!"

"What's up, Tristan?" Tea asked.

"Joey – **our Joey** – got… a B in math!" (2)

At first, nobody said anything as the news sunk in, but then the others started cheering loudly, and after the first few claps on the back, Joey finally was with it again and joined in, punching the air repeatedly with his fist and making no restraints in showing his joy.

"It's a B! Not a D, not even a C, but a **B**! It's like a miracle!" he yelled.

"Celebration, celebration!" Bakura and Marik chanted.

"Hell yeah, I definitely gotta celebrate this!"

"A party, yay!"

And so, within a matter of seconds, they decided to have a party since they all had done quite well in the tests (some of them had gotten new highest grades in certain subjects). Friday would be their night.

"Oh, there will be time to dance, right?" Tea squealed.

"Sure. In fact, why don't you bring along that kind of music?" Joey suggested.

"Really?! Okay, sure!"

"We won't have to endure pop music all evening long, though, will we?" Malik asked reassuringly, and Bakura and Marik nodded grimly in agreement.

"No way, there'll be plenty of guitar-sound as well! You know that's what I like too!" Joey answered with a wink.

"When shall we come on Friday?" Yugi asked.

"Anytime in the evening."

With a sly grin on their faces, Bakura and Marik put an arm each around Joey's shoulders. "Blondie, could we borrow one of those servants you surely have in that mansion?"

"For…?"

"We'll get the drinks."

Joey thought about this, then agreed under the condition that they would make sure that there was something for everyone. The two Yamis promised to ask around a bit, then they were promised to get an escort for after school on Friday, an adult of this millennium…

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Mokuba definitely was surprised when Joey came home and swept him into his arms, whirling him around and saying over and over again: "You were right, you were right…!"

"Right in what, Joey?" the raven-haired teen asked when he finally had firm ground under his feet again.

"Look at my math grade!" was the response as the radiant teen handed him the report card.

"A B?! Wow, well done, Joey! I told you you'd pass it!" Mokuba said happily upon seeing the grade. The teacher had even written "…Amazing" next to the single letter.

"See, you were right! Man, I gotta thank Seto; if it hadn't been for him, there's no way I would've gotten a B!"

"By the way: what did **he** get?" Mokuba inquired.

"Eh, a bunch of A's. I guess he really isn't called a genius for nothing," Joey answered, handing over the elder Kaiba's report card.

"And he doesn't even try hard," Mokuba sighed, seeing Joey's answer confirmed.

"That's convenient when he's got a company to run – then you can practically focus on one thing only. Oh, just so you know: Yug' and the others are coming over on Friday to celebrate the grades; we all did well."

"Cool! Can I attend the party too, Joey? Pleeeeease?"

"Ya don't need to use the puppy-eyes on me, kid – sure you can! Just stick to the soft drinks, okay?"

"Aye, aye!" Mokuba agreed instantly, even saluting the blond, who laughed.

"Deal, then. Now, let's see…" He was about to go look for one of the servants, but fortunately, one of them appeared right then. "Hey there, um…" Joey faltered; he rarely heard Seto call them by their names, so he was rather lost.

"Roland," Mokuba prompted him.

"Oh, thanks. Hey, Roland!"

The man stopped. "Yes, sir?"

"Could you do me a favor and come to the school when it's over on Friday? Two of my friends need you to accompany them on a little shopping errand…"

"Of course, Mr. Wheeler."

"Correction: '**Joey**'," the teen interjected almost automatically, "And even if they look or act like psychos, they're way okay – just don't say anything."

"Yes, Joey… um… sir." Then he left.

"I swear, someday I'll get them all to call me by my first name, and no polite form either, if possible," Joey declared.

"Good luck; you'd accomplish what I've been trying ever since we got here. To them, I'm still '**Master** Mokuba'," Seto's younger brother said with a faint sigh.

"I'd give anything to never be addressed like my father ever again…" Joey muttered, but lightened up right thereafter: "Say, sport, are you up for a couple of videogames?"

Mokuba grinned. "First one there gets to pick the game!"

"To make it fair: on your marks…"

"Getsetgo!" Mokuba shouted quickly, then dashed off to the stairs.

"Ooh, I'm gonna get you for that, you rascal!" Joey exclaimed, taking up the chase immediately.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

"We're here!" two voices rang through the mansion on Friday.

Joey, who had been lounging in the living room, followed those voices and found Marik and Bakura – and the moment he saw them, he knew that it would be quite a crazy evening.

"Man, how much did you buy?! That's enough for an army!" he whistled, referring to the bags they were carrying.

"Hardly," Marik argued, "For an army, this wouldn't go a long way; but for us, it should."

"Mind if we have a bit of action before the others arrive?" Bakura asked, "You know, before this place becomes one huge dance floor under command of Gardner…"

"Sure, as long as you don't make the neighbors call 911," Joey answered with a wink.

"Are we that bad…?" they wondered with fake innocence before running off to the sound system they remembered from the Halloween party. Joey helped Roland put away the drinks (the man looked rather relieved that the Yamis were gone; their presence just freaked people out who didn't know them), and before they were even done with that, the floor vibrated from the strong bass of whatever the spirits were listening to. Upon joining them, the blond found out that they too liked to play "rock star"…

About one and a half hours later, the rest of the gang arrived. Tea soon got into a minor squabble with Bakura and Marik, who weren't quite willing to give up the stereo just yet.

"Just a bit longer, Gardner; I'm teaching the kid how to dance!" Bakura told her.

"Dancing? I'd hardly call that dancing – that's just banging your head," she retorted haughtily, "**I** could teach him how to **really** dance!"

"You'll have plenty of time afterwards!" When the brunette gave up for now, Marik sighed. "Like we'd let her have her way so easily…" He grinned at Mokuba. "Kid, that hair of yours is so perfect for our style, I gotta hand it to you. Hope you're not considering to cut it anytime soon…" (3)

"I'm not; about a year ago, Seto gave up dropping hints that a haircut would do me well," the boy replied, snickering as he remembered the elder warning him that people might think he was a girl or something. Then he rubbed the back of his neck. "Is it normal that your neck hurts a bit?"

"Yeah, in the beginning it does. Once you get used to it, it takes much longer to hurt again," Bakura assured him.

An hour later, everyone was extremely cheerful for one reason or another. They had placed a major pizza order, and after that, Tea had taken control of the sound system. Bakura and Marik in particular had gone straight for the fridge when that happened, and Tristan made a bet with Joey how long it would be before they would start singing along or dancing to what they would usually consider to be "ridiculous songs". The blond and the brunet didn't need help by means of drinks to get in the action: just for fun, they even made a little competition out of it, a competition to see who could keep up longer with Tea.

"She's really good – they have no chance against her," Malik said as he watched the girl dance.

"It's not about being against **her**, but rather about being against **each other**," Yugi pointed out.

"Ah. And you're rooting for…?"

The short teen laughed. "I don't know, I really can't tell!"

Tea was thoroughly amused by the show her two friends were putting up, especially when one of her favorite songs played, "Footloose". Fairly easily, she managed to keep up the pace for the entire song, though Joey and Tristan were really struggling towards the end. At that point, one of the maids brought Mokuba the phone, and the boy left the room so he would be able to hear something.

"Hello?"

_"Mokuba…"_

"Hi Seto! How's it going?" Remembering the time, the boy suddenly frowned. "Wait a second, isn't it past midnight over there? Are you burning the midnight oil again?"

_"Yes, I am; I'm simply not tired,"_ Seto answered calmly.

"You will be in the morning."

_"Wrong. They have good coffee here."_

Mokuba knew that his brother was smiling at that moment. "You really are inseparable from that stuff…"

_"That's just the way it is. By the way, what is that noise I hear in the background?"_

"Oh, we're having a party. Before you ask me why, I'll see if I can get Joey for you, okay?"

_"Very well."_

Mokuba peered back into the room and saw how Joey and Tristan were struggling with the last part of the song. "Um… he's kinda busy right now, but he should have time in a second. Hang on."

He headed back into the room, and just then, the song ended, and the gang cheered, enjoying this entertainment.

"Joey, c'mere quickly!" Mokuba called.

The older teen excused himself, then sauntered over to the younger Kaiba.

"Here, it's Seto!"

"Hey, thanks a lot!" He took the phone, and Mokuba went back to his friends. "Do you have any idea how long I've been waiting for you to call?!" he panted.

_"Why so breathless, puppy? Were you that busy?" _

"I'd like to see **you** after dancing nonstop to that song… eh, whatever it's called."

_"Ah, that reminds me: Mokuba said you're having a party. Would you care to tell me what the occasion is?"_

"That brings me back to what I asked you – I've been waiting for two days to tell you! You know, we got our report cards on Wednesday."

_"You did? Carry on…"_

Joey took a deep breath. "Brace yourself…" He paused once more to create a moment of suspense, then practically squealed happily: "I got a B in math!"

When he heard this, Seto remembered how much Joey had been dreading that test. He recalled the blond's comments about how he would never be any good at math. Then again; considering all that negativity, he had made a good effort to study, and that plus his determination had now paid off. _"My sincerest congratulations to you, Joey. Very well done indeed."_

"That's not the half of it! Hell, the teacher even wrote '…Amazing' next to the grade, Seto!" Joey whooped.

_"Ah, that's even better. You proved to him that you can do well after all if you try hard enough and make use of the confidence you gained from practicing."_

"Shucks, if it hadn't been for you, it never would've happened. Thank you so much for helping me with that!"

_"It was nothing," _Seto assured him casually, _"So this party is to celebrate that satisfying experience, isn't it?"_

"Yeah, but not only for me. The others did well too: Bakura and Marik got an A each for Ryou and Malik in PE, Tea got a C plus in physics… Overall, we all got good results – especially **you**."

_"Oh?"_

"A's all the way, pal."

Seto shrugged – after all, he was used to getting such grades. _"Well, what can I say –"_ he began, but was interrupted:

"Blondie, it's insane! You gotta **do** something!"

Joey raised an eyebrow and turned around to see Bakura half-walking, half-stumbling towards him. "What're you talking about?"

"Hikari! He's… I dunno… EDM…"

"EDM? Help me out here…"

"Evil disco music!" (4)

Looking back to where his friends were (mostly) dancing, he saw that Ryou and Tea were taking to the floor, dancing disco-style. The voice that came from the speakers was saying something about a "Boogie Wonderland"…

"Hey, who're you talking to?" Bakura suddenly asked and grabbed the phone out of Joey's unsuspecting hands. "Hello?"

_"Ugh, not the tomb robber…!"_ Seto sighed theatrically.

"Kaiba! Hey buddy, how's it going? Man, you're missing something…!"

_"Yes, whatever. Put Joey back on the line, will you? Even from here, I can tell that you're drunk –"_

"Aw, just a couple of glasses! Hell no, it's not that bad yet! Did you know that Ryou dances disco-style?"

Seto silently counted to three._ "No, I didn't…"_ he answered slowly.

"It's actually quite hot, but the music's evil, you know?"

_"What__**ever**__. Listen –"_

"Do **you** dance disco? …What're you doing, Blondie? Want to undress me or something?!"

_"No. __**Bakura** –"_

The doorbell rang, and Bakura whooped. "Pizza's here! Marik! Quick, we must save the Meat Lovers one!"

In Munich, Seto held the phone away from his ear a bit. _"Blasted…!" _He could hear the two Yamis cackle insanely, then Joey was back:

"Sorry about that."

_"What the hell did they have?"_

"This and that… they bought the drinks. But don't worry; they aren't wrecking the house or something."

_"They had better not, or else I expect you to dispose of them."_

"Everything's under control."

_"That lunatic… You undressing him, that's a laugh…"_ the CEO snorted.

"Well, it's kinda hard to avoid physical contact when trying to get the phone back from him…" Joey replied amusedly, shaking his head.

_"I can see that. Anyway, why don't you get back to the party, pup? Go enjoy yourself; I've still got some things to do for tomorrow…"_

"Okay, if it's fine with you. Thanks for calling, Seto."

_"I promise to get back to you quite soon."_

"Sounds good," Joey smiled, "See ya, then. I love you."

_"I love you too,"_ Seto told him, then they hung up.

The party lasted for quite a while – at least as long as the Halloween party. Especially Marik and Bakura provided entertainment for them all (at one point, they even offered Mokuba a bit of their drinks, but the boy strictly refused, remembering what he had promised Joey) – and when they literally began to dance to just about every song, Mokuba went to get the video camera he owned and filmed it all; those would be amusing memories, especially the part when those two Yamis and Joey did some rather sexy dancing to songs like "Let's Spend The Night Together" and "I Was Made For Lovin' You"… (5)

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Finally, there was only one more week left until Seto would come home again (needless to say, both Joey and Mokuba were looking forward to that very much). On that Wednesday, though, Mokuba and Joey had only been home for about two hours when the doorbell rang.

"Aw, it's always when I'm in the middle of a problem…!" Joey sighed as he went to answer the door. He opened it and found himself face-to-face with two police officers. _'Oh man, this can't be good!'_ "Um… hello…" he finally said.

"You're Joseph Wheeler, aren't you?" one of the two men asked.

"Yes…"

"Sorry to bother you, but we're here to inform you about your father… You see, he's dead," the other one explained.

Joey stared at them, looking as if he were still waiting for the message to reach his brain, though right now it was more occupied with processing the information.

"…Sir?" the first officer asked when the teen's face seemed to have frozen in that blank look.

"…Dead?" the blond repeated after a moment of awkward silence.

"Yes. Perhaps you should sit down…"

He was still thinking about what they had said, yet Joey heard himself say: "If you want to come in…" Suddenly, he noticed that he was in the living room again, where he and Mokuba were in the middle of doing their homework. The raven-haired boy looked up when he noticed Joey's return, and his grey eyes widened instantly, looking fearful and full of dread – he remembered all too well what had happened the last time the police had come to the mansion…

"Joey, what happened? …Joey?" he asked, tugging at the teen's sleeve.

"Mokuba Kaiba, isn't it?" one of the officers concluded.

"Correct."

"We've come to notify you of Mr. Wheeler senior's death."

"Death?!"

"How?" Joey asked the men.

"Alcohol poisoning. He was found in the park this morning. If you could accompany us to the hospital now for identification purposes…"

"Right now?" When the officers nodded, he complied. "Okay."

"Joey, I wanna come too!"

"Mokuba can come along, right?"

"Yes."

The police took them to the hospital, where Joey identified the dead man as his father for sure. According to the officers, it was now up to him to arrange a funeral of his own choice since the man had left no will. When they could go home again, Mokuba asked:

"Joey, are you… um… sad that he's dead? I mean, don't get me wrong, but –"

"It's okay, kid," Joey interrupted softly, "I understand why you ask. You never knew him like I did, so you can't feel sad for him."

Timidly, the younger Kaiba nodded. "Yes… All I know about him is that he abused you. And now he'll **really** never be able to hurt you again, for sure. But I don't want to be disrespectful by showing some relief, as you guessed correctly."

"Don't worry about it, Mokuba. It's not as if I'm feeling **nothing** like that – it's just like you said – but still… he was my father…" He ran his fingers through his hair. "I just don't know what to do…!"

"Joey…" Mokuba was unsure what he could say in such a moment, so he simply hugged the other teen, and when the embrace was returned, he knew that he had done the right thing.

When they were home again, Joey fixed dinner for himself and Mokuba before calling Serenity. He sent a quick prayer to heaven that his mother wouldn't be the one to answer the phone – a few years ago, she had made it perfectly clear that she didn't want to hear from him, not to mention her ex-husband…

_"Hello, Serenity Wheeler speaking…"_

_'Thank God.'_ "Hey sis, it's me."

_"Joey!"_ she exclaimed happily, _"How are you?"_

"So-so. Listen, I've just come back from the hospital… Dad's dead."

He heard her gasp, then she was silent for a moment before whispering: _"…What did he die of?"_

"Alcohol poisoning." He gave a short, humorless laugh. "You know, I used to tell him that he should get help before exactly that happened – and now it **has**!"

_"What are you going to do now, brother?"_

"Well, since Mom's surely not willing to have anything to do with this, it looks like I'll be facing a bunch of paperwork, the cops told me; you know, terminating his account and everything… and a funeral."

_"Of course… How are you taking it?"_ she asked quietly.

"Good question. It's weird: I feel like laughing and crying at the same time, but I just don't know which is more right or wrong!"

_"Joey, if you want, I'll come to help you get through this."_

"But what about Mom?"

_"Don't worry, I'll find a way."_

Joey was immensely grateful for this. "Thanks a million, Serenity. This means a lot to me."

_"I know; it's the least I can do for you. I'll try to get there by Friday evening, okay?"_

"Sure, just give me a call when your flight arrives, and me and Mokuba will pick you up."

After that final agreement, they ended the call, and while Serenity began to try and persuade her mother to let her go to Domino, Joey fought desperately against the temptation to call Seto. In the end, he let it be and spent the remainder of the evening mulling over this new situation in an attempt to sort out the wearing clash between his feelings of relief and sadness…

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

It was perhaps thanks to that clash that he went to school the next day, for if he had been nothing else but sad, he knew he would have stayed at home. At school, he was more or less neutral about it, so for his friends, the announcement came quite out of the blue; all in all, they reacted similarly to Mokuba.

"Well, I don't think I need to tell you how **I** feel about that," Tristan muttered, rubbing the back of his neck rather nervously.

Because of the part within him that was relieved as well, Joey grinned a bit at him. "I know; you hate him all the way."

"You seem to be handling it quite well," Ryou remarked, though still placing a hand on the blond's shoulder in a gesture of sympathy.

"On the outside, yes; but on the inside…" Joey briefly explained the situation to them as good as he could. "Serenity is expected to arrive on Friday, and we'll decide about the funeral and stuff."

"Burial or cremation, right?" Tea asked.

"Yeah. Me, I want to make it short and simple, so the second option sounds better to me."

"If you need anything, just tell us – we're here for you," Yugi assured his friend.

Joey smiled. "Thanks, Yug'."

On Friday, he came home to find that Mokuba had already arranged for the essential paperwork to be brought over, and the boy told them that they could hire someone to come and help them when it was necessary. His support was rewarded with a bear hug from Joey ("Kid, you really are a star!"). In the late afternoon, they went to pick up Serenity at the airport (she had gotten an earlier flight than she had originally planned), and since they had to keep to a certain schedule, they didn't waste much time before starting to work on the forms. In the middle of that, shortly after six, the phone rang, and Serenity volunteered to answer it.

"Hello, Serenity Wheeler speaking…"

_"Serenity? Well, this is unexpected…"_ a mildly surprised voice answered.

"It's you, Kaiba, right?" She noticed how Joey looked up immediately at the mention of his boyfriend.

_"Yes, that's right. So, are you paying a spontaneous visit to Joey?"_

"In a way, yes. Listen, I'll put Joey on the line now, he's on the edge of the chair, waiting to talk to you…"

_"Ah, such an eager puppy!"_ she heard him say with a hint of fondness and amusement. Clearly, he was thinking that this would be a call like any other.

_'If only you knew,'_ she thought, then handed the phone to Joey, who went straight to the living room while his sister continued with the form he had been working on.

"Seto! God, I'm so glad to finally hear from you again…!" Joey sighed as he sat down on the couch.

_"I wanted to call you earlier, but a lot has been going on in the last few days,"_ the brunet explained.

"Same here."

_"Oh, is that so? Another party, perhaps? Or tests?"_

"What, so shortly after vacation? No way… But… Dad died," Joey answered, biting his lip. If only he could teleport himself to the other end of the line…!

Seto didn't know what to say for a moment. He looked at his watch – it was shortly past midnight. He had actually just planned to make it a short call, but that news made him change his mind within a second. _"Joey, if you want to talk about it, please do."_

"I'd love to, but isn't it kinda late where you are? I don't wanna keep you from sleeping…"

_"Screw that, you know that I can handle it if I have less sleep than usual. Go on, puppy."_

Knowing that Seto would stick to his decision, Joey gave in and started talking. Even when he struggled to find the proper words to describe the turmoil of his feelings, Seto remained patient, only interrupting when the other teen needed some encouragement to continue. As he heard how Joey's voice alternated between sounding like he liked it best and then sad, almost rueful at times, he found himself wishing intently that time would go by faster; though it wouldn't even be a whole week until he would return to America, it seemed to be like an eternity just then.

"…so we decided that the funeral will be on Saturday in a week. A simple thing; bury the ashes, no service. Maybe I'll ask for a guy to recite the Lord's Prayer or something."

_"That sounds like a good plan."_

"Seto, will you attend the funeral as well?"

_"Of course I will. After all, if you think about it: if it hadn't been for him, we probably wouldn't have gotten together. That's the one and only thing for which I give him something like credit."_

Joey sighed. Yes, that was another way of looking at it: he had suffered a lot from his father, but really, if that hadn't happened, he and Seto would still be at each other's throats whenever they could.

"Guess you're right. Thanks for listening to me – I feel a bit better now."

_"Why certainly, pup. Thank heavens it won't be much longer till I'll return…"_

"You can say that again. Look, why don't you go get some sleep now? I'll feel horrible if I keep you awake much longer – and don't even **try** to protest," the blond said rather sternly, foreseeing the CEO's reaction.

_"…So be it. My thoughts are with you, Joey. See you soon."_

"Yeah… so long, Seto."

After that, he and Serenity continued to fill out the forms as good as they could. Although Joey already had Mokuba for company, he was also very glad that his sister was there as well; it was soothing to hear that both of them promised to be there for him at all times, even if it would be in the in the middle of the night…

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

By the time Seto returned, nearly all the preparations for the funeral had been made. On the two weekdays until then, Joey would go to Seto's office after school while Mokuba went back to the mansion, where he had some interesting discussions with Serenity, most of which concerned their brothers' future. The red-haired girl was highly amused by the imagination of one of the boys wearing a wedding dress…

On March 6th, they buried the ashes of the Wheeler siblings' father in the cemetery of Domino. Since his motto was "to keep it simple", Joey merely resolved to wear a dress shirt instead of a whole suit, and Mokuba and Seto did the same (as for a trench coat, the brunet chose his navy-blue one). The rest of the gang was there as well, though they stayed more in the background. After reciting the Lord's Prayer (at least, as good as they could by heart), Joey and Serenity took a moment to think back on the times before the divorce of their parents, gathering the memories of happy moments they had had with the man whose ashes were now six feet under. It wasn't much, but it was something nevertheless.

"You know, I never stopped telling him that all he needed was some help aside from what I gave him, that everything would get better if that would happen," Joey muttered as he stared at the simple wooden cross at the head of the hole into which the urn had been lowered.

"It just wasn't meant to be," Serenity said softly, putting an arm around her brother.

"You kept your hopes up for so many years, yet look what he did to you… Sometimes I really wonder how you managed to stand your ground for so long," Seto remarked as he took Joey's hand in his own, tenderly intertwining their fingers.

"Partially, those happy memories kept me going… and after all, he was my Dad," Joey replied simply with a rather helpless shrug.

"If one thinks about it that way, why didn't your mother come – simply because he was her husband and they surely had some happy memories as well?" Mokuba asked Serenity.

"That's a good thought, but she really doesn't have anything positive left for him. For a while, I tried to talk to her, secretly hoping to uncover something that would help the family get together again, but it was no use. Incredible as it may seem to you, but she just put it behind her."

"But she treats you well?"

"Oh yes, very. My relationship with her is quite different from the one between Joey and his father."

"Oh," the raven-haired boy responded.

They lingered at the grave just a moment longer, then they turned away for good, and now the only traces left of the deceased were the memories they had of him.

* * *

(1) Hehe, car washes are cool...! XD

(2) Ta-da! I couldn't let his efforts go unrewarded, could I?! ;)

(3) Boys with long hair are cool. Too bad most of them seem to decide to cut it... _-headshake-_ And besides, I can't really picture Mokie with short hair...

(4) Don't get me wrong: some of that disco stuff is pretty cool...

(5) Warning, runaway imagination was at work there!

So... this was the second-to-last chapter. Only one more to go, folks. I call it "An incident & an ending"... (I'm practically finished with it, it just needs a few finishing touches here and there)

(And brace yourselves: especially concerning the first part of the last chapter, the A/N at the beginning is very important, so make sure to read it. But don't worry, there won't be any sudden deaths or something like that!)


	29. Chapter 29

Right then... here it is, the final chapter of We Are Family! The first part came to me when I listened to "What I've Done" by Linkin Park...

And another thing: This first part is really based on my own experience; I was also ca. 15 years old when it happened. It was an issue that has been bothering me for years, and now I could finally get rid of it. Hope nobody's too offended - I support NOTHING whatsoever that has to do with the Third Reich and National Socialism! I know, it's disgusting that a teacher would teach you to do... well, see for yourself.

Still, I think that it is important to get a laugh out of stuff like that every once in a while. Allow me to give you an example: imagine that you're in one of those quiz shows (e.g. "Who wants to be a millionaire"), and this is the question: What was Hitler's first name? (Easy, right?) Well, the contestant says: "Heil..." (my brother said he saw this on the Internet!) _-lol-_ (Sorry if anyone's offended by this, but I just find it hilarious!)

**Solo's Orca**: Well, when I wrote that, I was trying to bring it to an end that would sort of fit the flow to the last chapter, so I decided to make it short and sweet and kill him off. No big loss, in my opinion (maybe I'm cruel, but like one of my buttons says: "I tried to be kind, but it is much easier to be cruel")... Hmm yeah, but it'd have to reach the bottom of his neck, 'cause I've very rarely seen good-looking guys with shorter hair - maybe the Swiss men just aren't good-looking, who knows...?) Glad you liked it, BTW.

**XxTypoMasterxX**: Why, thank you very much! Hope you'll like this (admittedly, I'm kinda worried what people will think about this one, but I know that I don't have the will/power to come up with something different)... Hehe, yeah, puppyshipping rules 'em all!

**sweetchica55**: Thanks. Well, I thought that according to the fact that he still was their father, after all, he deserved a bit of respect (I mean, my grandma wasn't exactly nice to Mom either, but the funeral was lovely anyway)... I'm sad too - this story has been such a big part of the last six months, I'm actually kinda lost now that I'm done _-sniff-_ But thanks again for your compliments, I always like to hear that :) And I thank you very much for all the reviews you gave me!

**RomanGoddess4eva**: _-wails-_ I almost began to cry too when I realized that it would really be over! I mean, I practically felt like a robot in the daily life, but this story kinda offered me some sort of shelter, if you know what I mean... Ye Gods, I'll miss it... Hehe, well, I didn't want to allow him to hurt Joey again, so I thought: Hey, kill him off, at least he will have played his part :D Yeah, _ich liebe dich_ is German for "I love you" (BTW, did you know some American artists said in an MTV Masters about German that it's an aggressive language and that not even _ich liebe dich_ sounds... you know, nice and smooth, sorta...? In Swiss German, it certainly doesn't, 'cause we make lots of scratchy noises in the back of our throat when we talk _-lol-_) I'm glad you liked it, I was bracing myself for the fact that someone might be offended by it ;) (don't ask why, it was just some sort of feeling)

**dragonlady222**: Exactly, and remember how Serenity was worried too back in chapter 16 and how Seto said he hoped that she wouldn't worry someday anymore? Well, that day has come :) In my book, those memories will definitely help. That's true... after all, the fact that he was his father is undeniable, and like he said, it wasn't always bad...

**Arisa Akita**: Mixed feelings... yeah, I guess that's what some other readers who said that we'd almost have to be grateful to the man (because after all, if it hadn't been for him, Seto and Joey wouldn't have gotten together) would say the same thing. Actually, I hadn't really planned to expand the party like that, but I guess I didn't do it too bad. Ooh yes, I totally agree, I'd pay big bucks if I had them for those two to rock the joint _-cheers-_

Just so you know in advance: no matter if people are _-ahem-_ offended by the first part, I will not change it or anything. I have no regrets. _Ich bedaure nichts. Je ne regrette rien._

**You guys have been so great, I've enjoyed all your feedbacks from the very start! No words can describe how much I thank you guys - all credit goes to you!!** You made me such a happy girl... (P.S: they will never read this, but I thank my parents as well for being "walking encyclopedias" for me and helping me out whenever I wasn't sure about some expressions and prepositions... Thanks, Mom and Dad!)

* * *

Mokuba stared at the ground as he walked up to the mansion. He was hopelessly lost in thoughts.

_'What exactly did we do back there? It… It didn't feel… right…'_

He usually didn't initiate conversations that had to do with school, but this time he was actually desperate to talk about it with somebody. And he did have a certain target in mind as he opened the door and carelessly dropped his backpack next to the door before heading straight for the living room. To his dismay, it was empty.

"Joey?" he called.

"In the kitchen!" a cheerful voice called back, and Mokuba followed it. Sure enough: in the kitchen, Joey was in the middle of getting himself a glass of orange juice. "Hi kiddo. Had a good–?" He faltered when he saw the boy's expression. "What's wrong?"

"I… I need to talk to you. About school."

Joey raised his eyebrows – such talk from Mokuba was unusual. Especially that tone of voice; he sounded lost and almost fearful. "C'mon, let's go to the living room. Then you can tell me all about it," he suggested, and Mokuba simply nodded as they went back to where he had been before. "So, tell me about it. How was it, anyway?" Joey asked, flopping down onto the couch (miraculously not spilling his drink).

"We… We started the subject of the Second World War in history," Mokuba began.

"Ah. That's interesting, though kinda brutal, as you will see…" Joey grinned anyway – being happy and showing it – and motioned for him to carry on.

"You remember what I told you about our 'substitute' teacher, right?"

Now the blond frowned. Something definitely wasn't right. And yes, he remembered how Mokuba had had his doubts about that teacher (personally, he still referred to him as an old geezer, mostly), the one who had been assigned to tutor them for longer as planned after the previous teacher had ended up in the mental hospital for reasons the school didn't want to make public. "Yeah…" he said slowly.

"He made us do something… and I have a bad feeling about it." The raven-haired boy shuffled his feet uneasily.

"What did he make you do?" Joey asked and had another long sip of the juice.

The boy took a deep breath, then stood upright and stiff like a soldier, held out his right arm in a salute and said: "Heil Hitler!"

Joey choked on his juice, and because of his coughing, the glass actually fell out of his hand and shattered when it hit the floor. The juice began to spread out, partially soaking the carpet. That might just leave a stain, much to the joy of the cleaning maids…

"Joey! Are you okay?" Mokuba asked worriedly as he patted his friend's back.

The older teen tried to say something, but first he had to stop the coughing. Finally, he regained a hold of himself. Horror-struck, he stared at Mokuba. "He made you do **that**?!"

"…It is a bad thing, right?" the younger Kaiba asked guiltily.

"Oh yeah; it's awful, in fact. I can't believe it…!" Joey replied hotly. When he noticed the downcast look of the boy, though, he put his hands on his shoulders. "Mokuba, I need you to promise me something."

"Yes?" he squeaked.

"Please don't ever do that again. If anyone would see you doing that, you would get into a shipload of trouble."

Mokuba looked thoroughly miserable and confused. "I somehow knew that it was strange… I'm sorry, Joey…"

"Hey, it's not your fault," Joey murmured and comfortingly hugged him. He could feel the other's unease. He himself was deeply troubled now as well – and when he tried to imagine a class of 20 kids, all Mokuba's age, doing what the kid had just done, he even started to feel sick.

(A/N: Yes, this happened to me when we were introduced to that subject. Believe me, my parents hit the roof big-time, but because the teacher was almost finished with teaching us, they didn't look to have a conversation with him or something. They almost did, though, when I had the test on WWII: we had to draw the flag of the Nazis... _-fidgets- _Even today, I wonder about that incident; I mean, anybody who would have passed the school would have seen us…! Anyway, so this is where my personal experience ends, and what comes now is purely dreamed up.)

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

That evening, he tried to watch the news, but what had happened earlier on just wouldn't quite leave his mind. In the middle of his brooding, the phone rang, and he answered it.

"Joey Wheeler…"

_"Hello, my sweet puppy,"_ a deep voice answered him, and Joey's heart felt a bit lighter. He heaved a sigh of relief and said in a calmer, easygoing tone of voice:

"Hey there, Seto, how are you?"

_"Oh, the usual. Meetings here and there, business day in and day out… and always missing you, of course. But what about you? What is the reason of that sigh I just heard?"_

"Oh… um…" Joey fidgeted. He knew that it would be best if Seto would know the reason soon, though he wondered whether Mokuba would have wanted to tell him in person. As if the brunet had sensed his unease, even overseas, the voice became more stern and demanding:

_"Joey, what is going on?"_

"Well… it's Mokuba."

As he had expected, Seto's voice immediately acquired a tone of worry; after all, his "little" brother (actually, Mokuba had grown quite a bit) meant the world to him, and Joey knew that it broke his heart whenever the kid was sad or worried. _"What is with him?"_

"He said that they moved on to the Second World War in history today."

Miles away, Seto frowned. _"…And?"_

"He came home, and Jesus, he was so upset… So he told me something about that teacher –"

His lover interrupted him harshly:_ "Just tell me what happened, dammit!"_

Something that was a cross between panic and desperation arose in Joey when he heard that intonation (it had been quite a while since he had last heard it), and so he simply blurted out: "The teacher made them do 'Heil Hitler', Seto!"

For a moment, there was nothing else but dreadful silence, in which Joey realized that he had said it just like that, without a warning. He had intended to explain it more gently, but no… Now, all he could do was brace himself for the storm – and it came before he could get properly started with that preparation:

_"**What**?!"_

Yes, Seto Kaiba was yelling. **Screeching**, in fact. His voice was so loud that Joey held the receiver at arm's length from his ear, startled by the sudden increase of volume. Then he heard a strange noise at the other end and pressed the phone back to his ear.

"…Seto?"

There was a scuffling noise and lots of yelling. And as far as Joey could tell, it was a tirade of curses that would have made him proud back when he had been in a street gang. He could almost picture Seto walking back and forth in the hotel room, eyes ablaze with anger and not making any effort to conceal it. Then he said something that Joey heard perfectly well, although the brunet wasn't even speaking directly into the mouthpiece:

_"Joseph Wheeler, you had __**better not**__ be lying – or worse yet, joking!"_

Now he began to get angry. They had argued quite a few times over jokes he had made that Seto didn't find funny, but to think that he had such a twisted, sick sense of humor (not that there was **anything** humorous about it) – or that he was lying, even…! No, he couldn't accept that. He began yelling too:

"Who the hell do you think I am?! For fuck's sake, I'm not **that** sick! That's just damn wrong! You should know me better by now!"

He wasn't even sure if Seto heard that; just then, the elder Kaiba screamed in utmost rage, and for the second time that day, Joey heard the sound of breaking glass: Seto must have either swept one of the standard hotel room glasses off the table or flung it against the wall. Both options were highly possible. Another silence followed (Joey welcomed this; he preferred the silent Seto over the yelling Seto), and then a voice that shook with anger spoke again, though more quietly:

_"…You're absolutely… sure?"_ Ah yes, the wild hope that he had misheard or was just dreaming…

Sadly, Joey answered: "Positive. Seto… he even…" He swallowed. "He even **did** it. He showed me."

A stressed breathing was audible, and then Joey was forced to do nothing more than listen to how his boyfriend started crying – out of anger, that was. He also heard a fist being slammed onto a table. _"M-Mokuba…!"_

"Seto, please!" Joey whined, hating to hear that immense distress, "Please stop crying…! Please…" He already felt his eyes become wet as he fretted over his helplessness and the distance that was between them. He wished for nothing else in the world than to simply hold Seto and comfort him, touch him, whisper in his ear, to kiss his tears away…

After a few agonized moments, the CEO managed to speak again. _"God, Joey… I… I can't believe it… Where is he? How is he doing?"_ That last bit sounded frantic.

"Upstairs," Joey whispered, "He said that he wanted… to think about it. Alone. I haven't seen him since." He listened to how his lover took a deep breath before saying firmly:

_"Listen; there are two things I ask of you. First, I want you to go see to him. Tell him that you informed me about this. You shall not leave him until you're absolutely sure that he is as alright as one can be in his situation. And tell him that I don't want him to spend another hour with that man. He can learn through you, if he wants, but I do not want to have him exposed to anymore of… of __**that**__. Second, I want you to call the parents of his classmates and find out if they know about this as well. Understand?"_

"You got it."

An angry growl reached his ears. _"That teacher will get his ass fired, even if it's the last thing I ever do!"_

Joey didn't reply to this – boy, he knew that whenever Seto said something like that, it happened sooner than later.

_"I'm sorry about what I said earlier. I know that you'd never lie or joke about something like that. I didn't mean to insult you…"_

The blond smiled sadly. "It's okay. Hey, if I had been in your place, I probably would have done the same thing. I just wish that I could be with you now…"

Seto sighed heavily. _"The feeling's mutual. I'd come home right now if these meetings wouldn't last another week."_

Joey decided that he could take the liberty of trying to change the subject for a while – they both would be thinking about the whole salute-incident in the back of their minds anyway, but at least they wouldn't be **talking** about it for a couple of minutes… "So, are those meetings really as boring as some people say they are?"

_"I seldom have time to be bored, but __**you**__ would be, puppy."_

Joey managed a small laugh, and at that sound, he almost believed to hear Seto chuckle too a bit. They had a bit more small talk, but what they had discussed before just disabled them from having a conversation like they had intended to. Soon, Seto excused himself:

_"Forgive me, Joey, but I think we should stop now. I… I have an important meeting tomorrow…"_

"Yeah, I understand. I hope you'll sleep well," Joey sighed.

_"Mmh-hmm. Goodnight, puppy. I love you so much,"_ he whispered wistfully.

"I love you too."

Across the Atlantic, Seto cracked a pained smile. _"I love you more."_

"No, **I** love **you** more."

_"…Give my regards to Mokuba, okay? Hold him for me. Tell him that I love him."_

Joey bit his lip. "Will do, Seto. …Goodbye." They hung up at the same time.

In America, Joey sighed yet again (the part of him that was responsible for his jokes considered calling up the Guinness Book of Records because of that), then went upstairs to fulfill his promise. He found Mokuba lying in bed, his brow furrowed in thoughtfulness and the grey eyes almost black with heavy, guilty feeling. On the desk, the computer was running, so Joey concluded that he might have been doing some research on the dreadful salute. He sat down on the bed and spent almost an hour with the younger Kaiba, sometimes talking, sometimes not. And although he visibly strained not to do so, Mokuba cried when Joey told him about Seto's reaction, and the older teen did his absolute best to comfort him as he passed on the brunet's regards and love. Joey also passed on the suggestion that he would teach him a couple of things until Seto sorted things out with the teacher, and Mokuba agreed to it. Later on, the blond called the other kids' parents; some of them knew about the ordeal and others didn't, but they all assured him that they would like to see the teacher get fired. Now that he had done what had been asked of him, Joey went to root through his school stuff for the notes he had made on the subject…

In Germany, Seto numbly walked to his bed and lay down on it. He looked at his hands, which were trembling slightly. With a frustrated moan, he covered his face with them and breathed deeply a few times. Then he turned his head to look at the picture on his bedside table. It was a portrait of Joey and Mokuba; they looked so happy, so carefree… The picture became blurred as he felt tears well up in his blue eyes. His brother, the most innocent thing he had ever seen… doing the Hitler salute?! No… In that moment, Seto didn't feel anything like the CEO of a flourishing company or one of the richest men in America – he simply was Seto, Mokuba's older brother and guardian. To realize that he had let something like that happen to him felt like betrayal, like failure; especially when he recalled Mokuba's doubts about the teacher (_'And I had told him to show __**respect**__, for Christ's sake!'_). Now he understood that those doubts were justified. In the darkest corner of his mind, his imagination conjured up a picture of the raven-haired teen: the cheerful face was rigid and unsmiling, the grey eyes expressionless and yet hateful, the right arm being raised and… When he heard his mind make that awful picture say those two words that sounded so wrong, Seto quickly rolled onto his stomach, buried his face in his pillow and started crying again. He sobbed with anger, bewilderment and sadness. The thought of Mokuba's innocence being tainted so shamefully nagged on him so much, so dreadfully much…

He found no restful sleep during the few remaining hours of that night. His mind just couldn't let go of the matter – it kept tormenting him with that image of Mokuba as one of **them** – and when he did fall asleep at one point, all he got was a nightmare about his brother, Joey and Nazis… hearing that salute over and over again, sometimes spoken by familiar voices and sometimes by unfamiliar ones…

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

A week later, on a Monday, Mokuba and Joey were at the airport, waiting at the arrival terminal with other people. They had gotten there far too early because they simply couldn't wait to see Seto again, but they had found plenty of things to do while they waited, such as drinking a cup of hot chocolate and letting their excitement get the better of them as they chased each other around diverse objects, giggling like sugar-high kids. Some people cast them strange looks, but they didn't notice that at all. The flight from Berlin appeared to have landed on time, and now they waited in the front row for the passengers to arrive.

Mokuba tugged excitedly at Joey's sleeve when he finally saw his older brother, who was walking amidst the other first-class passengers, pulling a black suitcase behind him. The boy did his very best to stay put until his sibling would have reached him, but shortly before that, he just couldn't take it anymore and slipped underneath the barrier to dash towards the tall brunet and latch himself onto him, happily crying out his name.

"Seto! Finally, you're back! I missed you so much…!"

"Mokuba…" Seto sighed softly, right away petting the black hair with his long, slender fingers. Then he ushered his brother along so they wouldn't be in the way of other passengers. After getting out of the arrival section, Seto fully embraced his brother. To hear the kid's melodious laughter again made him so happy… there was only one other thing in the world that made him just as happy, and the reason for that stood before him when he looked up again.

Joey was at a loss for words. He simply didn't know what to say. Seto had been gone for 6 months… He had thought that he would cry out his name, thanking the Gods out loud that he had returned, but somehow everything he had imagined to say had run away, and he just stared at him, an overjoyed smile plastered on his face. For a moment that seemed to last forever, they just looked at each other, and then Seto broke the silence:

"Hello Joey."

Those two words, that simple greeting, seemed to sweep his temporary numbness away, and with a cry that resembled Mokuba's, Joey flung his arms around Seto and hugged him so tightly that the other teen gasped a bit at the sudden lack of oxygen. But when the CEO hugged him back, it was his turn to be short of breath. They drew back just a bit and were practically nose-to-nose.

"Seto…" Joey murmured.

He loved to hear the blond say his name. He liked it, no matter whether it was screamed with enthusiasm or whispered in the tone of voice that said 'I belong to you, you and nobody else'. "I'm so glad that you're still here waiting for me, my puppy," Seto said honestly.

"Where else would I be?" Joey asked him with a grin. Whenever Seto had gone on a business trip, he had been waiting at the airport when he returned; except when he had school, and in those cases Seto would be waiting in the limousine at the school when classes were over. And this was how it had been for –

"Three years; and still you're not fed up with me?" Seto asked with a smirk.

Joey laughed when he realized that he must have spoken those thoughts. "Of course not! I love you, silly!"

"That's good, for I love you too," was all Seto said before capturing his lips in a kiss. They took it to the brink of where innocence merged with pure and wild passion before Seto slowly ended it. With a smile, the elder Kaiba softly petted his hair once before looking back at his brother. Mokuba was all smiles, as he had been ever since they had laid eyes upon each other again.

When he gazed at the teen that looked just like Seto liked him best, he remembered what he heard from Joey a week ago. He felt himself tense up as he just stared at the boy's face, returning back to the point of not believing that he had performed that dreadful salute…

"Big brother?" Mokuba asked, noticing a look of sadness and yet anger on his sibling's face. And suddenly he understood. "Seto, I'm so sorry…" he mumbled, averting his gaze.

"You aren't the one who should apologize," Seto said as he placed his hands on the youngster's shoulders, "I'll make that teacher pay for what he did. I will see to it that he won't do that to any kids ever again. I just want you to promise me that you'll never do that again, you hear?"

"I promise."

"Good. Now, can you smile again for me?"

Mokuba looked up and did as it was asked of him. Satisfied, Seto hugged him, then linked arms with Joey as they proceeded to the exit. Things went as they always did – at least, until they were back at the mansion. There, they had barely gotten to the living room when Seto said:

"By the way, puppy, I have a present for you."

"A present?! Why? It's not my birthday…" Joey replied, confused.

"I know it isn't." Seto handed him a little present wrapped in gold with a blue ribbon. While Joey removed the paper, Mokuba got an excited glint in his eyes and looked up expectantly at his brother, who just gave him a small, mysterious smile. A moment later, Joey was holding a black box in his hand. When he opened it and saw what it contained, his eyes widened and his jaw dropped. Mokuba bit his lower lip with anticipation. Seto patiently waited until Joey finally turned his amber eyes to him with his mouth open but no words coming out of it before saying:

"Joseph Wheeler, will you marry me?"

It was all Mokuba could do to not jump up and down and squeal with joy. Joey gazed at the craftily made silver ring with the (not overly large) diamond again before looking up again. He sounded as if he still couldn't quite believe it when he answered:

"Yes, Seto Kaiba, I will."

Now Mokuba didn't hold back with showing his pleasure as he danced around them as the two lovers kissed passionately after Seto slid the ring on Joey's finger. Needless to say, on that evening they celebrated this new step in their relationship, and for the first night after 6 months, Seto could finally seduce his puppy again.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

The following day, Mokuba was still smiling as if there was no tomorrow to come when school was out. His friends had asked him what was going on, but he fortunately had managed to stay quiet, knowing that his brother and Joey would announce it soon enough, and it should be a big surprise. When he walked through the front doors, though, the smile ran away from his face when he saw his two brothers (well, one would be a brother-in-law) approaching the building. Seto had a dark look on his face; he looked as if he were ready to kill. Joey looked rather worried, and Mokuba knew that his purpose was to interfere if Seto's rage would get the better of him.

"Seto! Joey! What are you doing here?" he asked.

"Come, Mokuba; there's still a score that needs to be settled," Seto growled as he swept past the teen, heading straight for the teacher's lounge. The students shrank against the wall in fright as the CEO came along. Mokuba hurried alongside Joey to keep up, trying to ignore the looks of the other teenagers that said 'You must be insane to go along with him'.

Unceremoniously, Seto flung open the door to the teacher's lounge. Currently, there was only one teacher sitting at a desk. He looked up through his glasses (which were on the lower half of his nose) and frowned. The way the skin of his face sagged a bit told a story about his age. He looked like one of those stern teachers you didn't dare to trifle with. Mokuba inched a bit closer to Joey as they entered the room behind Seto, who walked right up to the desk and got straight to the point.

The brunet slammed both hands down on the desk, his face livid with anger and started yelling as memories of his nightmare came back to him. Mokuba cringed at the loudness of his brother's voice, and Joey lightly patted his shoulders.

"…upsetting him like that! I should have you arrested on the spot! Didn't you think about what you would do to the kids by teaching them that?!"

The teacher glanced at Mokuba, then back at Seto. "Mr. Kaiba, I presume?" he asked, though not sounding very interested, "You should understand that that is a part of history and part of basic knowledge when it comes to the Second World War."

"Maybe to **know** it, yes, but just knowing how it **looks** like! It is not intended that one should learn how to **do** it!" Seto bellowed.

"Calm yourself, Mr. Kaiba," the teacher retorted.

Narrowing his blue eyes (and by now really looking scary), Seto leaned over the desk so the teacher's face took up all of his hate-filled vision. "What are you, some kind of bloody Neo-Nazi?!" he snarled.

The man gave him a look of disbelief and replied in a remarkably calm voice: "Perhaps I should meet up with your parents and explain to them why I included that in my learning schedule. Perhaps **they** will listen decently to me without making such outrageous, false accusations."

Seto grinned wickedly. "Our parents are dead, so you will deal with **me**!"

Now Joey appeared at his side and gripped his arm, ready to hold him back in case he really would lose it. "Seto, perhaps you should calm down at least a bit! You're scaring Mokuba!"

To his relief, the tall teen paused and briefly turned around. Sure enough, Mokuba looked badly frightened, as if wishing that he could be somewhere else and to have his brother back, but calmer and not in an outrage.

"Please, Seto, I said I wouldn't do it again! Can't we just go home…?"

For a moment, Seto looked torn, and Joey and Mokuba knew what was going on in him: part of him wanted to stay and finish what he had started, but another part of him wanted to give in to his brother's wish – the last thing he wanted was to see his sibling being frightened of him.

_'It's for his own good… and the good of the other students as well… Well, I'll pull the strings in the background. He'll be gone before Mokuba's next history lesson.'_

"This is not over yet!" he hissed at the teacher, then whirled around and left the office as quickly as he had come. Mokuba followed right away, not looking back. Joey hesitated a moment longer, casting a final glance at the man – especially since he was now seeing him in person, he wondered what on earth had driven the man to teach the class that salute – then he left as well. The teacher looked at the empty doorway a moment longer, then went back to correcting some tests.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

As Seto had vowed to himself, the teacher was fired the day before Mokuba's next history lesson. The class and especially the teenagers' parents were very relieved.

And yet… shortly after the school hired a new history teacher, Seto had a restless sleep. His mind brought back images he had hoped to never see again: vast armies of Nazis, and among them, Mokuba marched along… a swastika on his uniform… then he was doing that salute… and some other soldier faintly looked like Joey… To make it worse, there also were words… _"Heil Hitler!"_… _"Wir müssen die Juden ausrotten!"_…

"Stop, stop it!"

Seto's eyes snapped open, and he felt as if it were 120 degrees hot in the room. He was breathing as heavily as though he had just run a marathon. The first thing he thought about was whether he had said that "Stop, stop it!" in his dream or here in the present. _'Oh God, that dream… not again…!'_

"What… Seto?" a voice mumbled next to him.

He wanted to say something in reply, but his voice was gone. A hand touched his bare shoulder, and it felt pleasantly cool…

"Seto, what's wrong? You're…" A yawn. "…You're burning up…"

He still couldn't reply, so he slowly turned onto his back. At his side, Joey sat up and leaned over him. Seto saw how downright concern had already chased away most of the sleepiness in the amber eyes.

"You're not falling ill, are you?" the blond asked softly.

Shaking his head, Seto whispered: "No… I had a… a bad dream."

This situation was new to Joey; throughout the last three years, he had comforted Mokuba when the kid had had a couple of nightmares, but he had never seen Seto have one before. Unlike some really narrow-minded people, though, he hadn't considered that to be impossible. He decided that he might as well apply the same method he used on the raven-haired boy: he motioned to Seto to sit up, and the brunet did the next step all by himself: he just hugged Joey, practically clinging to him like Mokuba too did when being scared.

The other teen returned the embrace in the same fashion, except that his touch wasn't one of desperation, but rather of comfort. Slowly and tenderly, one of his hands rubbed his lover's back. Seto shuddered and held him even tighter.

"Ssh, Seto…" he heard a whisper very close to his ear, then he felt a soft kiss on his neck, "That's it… calm down…"

Seto guessed that this was how Mokuba felt when he was being comforted after a similar experience. The shock of what he had seen in his dream gradually ebbed away; it was replaced with calmness, gratitude and trust. _'So this is what it's like to wake up with a fright and have someone to chase it away…' _

"Joey… thank you…" he breathed.

"For what? This?"

"Yes…"

Joey drew back and gave a chuckle of amusement. "What did you think I'd do, laugh at you? Or do nothing?"

"I… didn't know. And I didn't intend to wake you up."

"Hey, I'm not complaining, wondrous as it may be," Joey replied brightly, then brushed a hair strand out of the other's face.

"Indeed." Seto sighed. "You know, this isn't the first time I had that dream…"

"It isn't?!"

"No. I had it back in Berlin before – you know, right after you told me about Mokuba and that salute."

"Oh man…" Joey muttered heavily, "What was the dream about, anyway?"

"It was an army of those blooming Nazis… and Mokuba was one of them…" He shook his head a bit. "He said those words over and over again… I saw him do the salute again and again as well… and you too," he added faintly.

"Me?! Oh, I'm sorry… if only I hadn't said it just like that when I told you about that incident…!" Joey apologized.

"I'm the one to blame: I didn't let you try to explain it in a more elusive way," Seto argued, "But it's over now. That man is gone, and I really hope that we'll never have to deal with something like that again."

"I bet we won't," Joey assured him with a smile, then he looked at the alarm clock. "Two am… you can still catch a couple hours of sleep before work tomorrow – same goes for me and school. Lie down…" Gently and yet decidedly, he pushed Seto back down, and once that was done, he lay down as well, bedding his head on Seto's shoulder.

"If you stay there, I won't feel my arm in the morning," the CEO said quietly.

"Aw… don't make me go…" Joey mumbled, not exactly willing to open his eyes again.

For a moment, no answer came as Seto gazed tiredly at the other's hand that was on his chest – the hand with the engagement ring on the ring finger. A smile dawned on his face.

"It's okay, puppy. Do you really think I'd send you away?"

"Hope not." The murmur was now barely distinguishable.

Seto took Joey's hand in his own and kissed the blond's forehead. Once again, he was witnessing his fiancé's incredible ability to quickly fall asleep just about anywhere within a short time. As he closed his eyes, he couldn't help but think that he could barely wait for the next morning; a kiss didn't replace his beloved coffee, but it definitely helped to start the day well.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

A year and two months later, their time at Domino High School was over, and they all graduated successfully. Two weeks after that, Seto and Joey got married. They only invited their closest friends: the 'geek patrol' (when Seto called them that as they made the list of guests, Joey just laughed, for by now Seto really only used that term as a joke), Serenity, Solomon, Carol and the Kaiba household staff. Davis got the honor of making the wedding pictures (later on, he described it as an incredible experience that easily rivaled the CEO's coming-out). Mokuba took great pleasure in being Seto's "best man" while Tristan did the same for Joey. When the priest had spoken the final words to seal the ceremony and the newlyweds kissed, the chapel was filled with rapturous cheers and also some tears (tears of joy, naturally).

"It was so wonderful… I'm so happy for you!" Serenity said to Joey afterwards.

"Thanks, sis."

"And you've never looked so smart before," Tristan grinned, plucking at his friend's sleeve.

"Maybe, but it's weird… a bit, you know…" Joey sighed. Of course, on this very special day, everybody had reminded him plenty of times that this was **not** the time to not tuck the shirt into the pants like he usually did…

"Bakura, what did you do to these pictures?" Ryou wondered out loud as he looked through them.

"Why? Are they fuzzy?" the thief asked, leaning over to get a look.

"There! There it is again! The finger!"

Bakura waved his hands in front of him in a defensive gesture. "What, no, it can't be! **These**," (he moved his middle fingers), "were just busy holding the camera!"

"I told you to make sure to keep it away from the lens –"

"What are you two arguing about again?" Seto asked, laying a hand each on their shoulders.

"The finger," Ryou explained, "It happens **every time** he operates the camera…!"

"Well, **you** are the one who takes **forever** just for one bloody picture!" Bakura retorted, "If you had done it, we'd only have **one** by now…!"

"May I?" Seto asked, then took the camera from Ryou after getting an affirmative nod. He had a quick look at them, and suddenly his white-haired friend pointed.

"There! See?"

Seto looked at what looked like a smudge on the picture. Ah, so Bakura must have – probably accidentally – put his finger on the lens. Sometimes, the "smudge" was more apparent, and sometimes less… Now that he was fully in the picture, the brunet laughed shortly. "It's nothing that can't be fixed with a little cropping on the computer, don't worry about it."

Ryou looked somewhat abashed. "I'm sorry, Bakura… I had just thought…"

"You thought that by now, I'd be smart enough to avoid that little mistake," the tomb robber finished jokingly.

"Please don't say that; you know I don't think you're stupid! You're just… just…"

"…somewhat untalented when it comes to technical devices," Seto finished helpfully, and Bakura shrugged.

"Yeah, that!"

After settling that minor conflict, they all went to the Kaiba mansion, where the celebration continued. Sometime throughout that, Marik and Bakura (they really were practically as inseparable from each other as they were from their Hikaris) asked:

"Have you already decided where you want to go to on your honeymoon?"

"You're lucky," Marik continued eagerly, "You could do something cool, like go to the moon!"

"The moon?!" Joey repeated, "Wow, that's **really** far away…"

"The moon?!" Bakura playfully cuffed his Egyptian friend, "Are you nuts? What kind of honeymoon would **that** be? Don't you know that those spacesuits would be in the way of kissing, sort of? And it would take much longer to undress…!"

Clearly, Marik had only thought about how they would have a spectacular view of the Earth. "Oh… you're right… must've slipped my mind…"

"It's an interesting question, though: where **do** you want to go to, puppy?" Seto asked.

"Hard to say," Joey answered thoughtfully, "There are so many possibilities…"

"I'll follow you wherever you want to go," Seto whispered before kissing him.

"Aw, don't make me make this decision on my own!" Joey whined, using the puppy-eyes.

Bakura and Marik watched amusedly as Seto feigned resistance. "Give me one reason why," he suggested, moving away just enough so Joey couldn't quite kiss him.

"Because you love me," the blond told him with a wink.

Seto moved back to him. "That's a very good reason. The best, in fact. Okay, we'll decide together."

"Thanks," Joey smiled and ended the conversation abruptly for now by kissing him.

Bakura and Marik grinned at each other and decided that this was the perfect time to go look for their Hikaris – and so they made a silent getaway, letting Seto and Joey have the affectionate moment all to themselves.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

In the many years that followed, Seto and Joey always attended the weddings of their friends as well. And like every couple, they experienced their ups and downs; sometimes, they got close to breaking up, but Mokuba and Serenity (his new assistance) always eventually managed to bring them to their senses. Many years later, Mokuba left the Earth before his two brothers, and it wasn't long before they followed as well. However, they were reunited in the afterlife and could be together again, this time forever. Forever happy. And forever a family.

* * *

So... This is where WAF ends. I know, the ending was probably totally, terribly/horribly/incredibly (etc, you pick an expression that suits you best) sappy and uber-cute, but I just couldn't help it, not after it had started out so... darkly or whatever. Hey, I'd wish Seto and Joey and all the others a happy ending any day :)

God, I'll miss working on this (my little "masterpiece" - it **is** the longest thing I have ever written!)... aside from school work, it was a major part of my life throughout the last six months. _-blows nose-_ Well, they say that nothing lasts forever, after all...

This is the last time that I ask of you to review if you can spare the time - and since this is the last chapter, I'll personally reply to each and every one (via PM, not like what I've done throughout this story).

Looking forward to hearing from you guys, and hugs and kisses galore for your support,

_**devotedtodreams**_

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

P.S: Just for the heck of it, I'd like to list up most of the songs that inspired me throughout this story (some are explicitly mentioned, others aren't, but they're in chronological order and all are highly recommendable _-hehe-_) - music was incredibly important when I had writer's block...

"Spieluhr" (Rammstein)

"Life Is A Magic Thing" (Johnny Clegg)

"Wilbury Twist" (Traveling Wilburys)

"We Used To Be Friends" (Dandy Warhols)

"La Camisa Negra" (Juanes)

"All Night Long" (Rainbow)

"Rock DJ" (Robbie Williams)

"This Flight Tonight" (Nazareth)

"This Moment Is Eternity" (Nightwish)

"Your Guardian Angel" (Red Jumpsuit Apparatus - thanks to **blackorchid143** for that recommendation, it really suits Seto and Joey well and is now one of my favorite songs!)

"The Christmas Waltz" (Yuletide Carolers/Holly Players Orchestra)

"Piano Man" (Billy Joel)

"As The Years Go Passing By" (George Thorogood)

"Wonderful Dream" (Melanie Thornton)

"Heaven Is A Place On Earth" (Belinda Carlisle)

"Born To Be Wild" (Steppenwolf)

"Catch Me If You Can" (Ana Johnsson)

"Ending Theme" (from the game Snowboard Kids, no idea who did that soundtrack...)

"Empty Walls" (Serj Tankian)

"In The Army Now" (Status Quo)

"I'm A Believer" (The Monkees)

"Bright Eyes" (Art Garfunkel)

"Bang Your Head (Metal Health)" (Quiet Riot)

"Juke Box Hero" (Foreigner)

"Footloose" (Kenny Loggins)

"Boogie Wonderland" (Earth, Wind & Fire)

"Let's Spend The Night Together" (The Rolling Stones)

"I Was Made For Lovin' You" (Kiss)

"Walk Like An Egyptian" (The Bangles)

"What I've Done" (Linkin Park)

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

If you have any questions or comments other than reviews (e.g. WTH was inspirational about song XXX?! or major errors in the text), feel free to PM me!


End file.
